J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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The Christian Way-. 



WHITHER IT LEADS AND HOW TO 

GO ON. 



BY 

WASHINGTON GLADDEN, 

AUTHOR OF "BEING A CHRISTIAN," " PLAIN THOUGHTS ON THE ART OF 



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NEW YORK: 
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 

751 BROADWAY. 

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Copyright 
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 

1877. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

PAGE 

The Christian's Aim 9 

II. 

The Christian's Calling. . . ' 28 

III. 
The Christian in the Church 46 

IV. 
The Christian as a Witness 65 

V. 
The Christian in Business 84 

VI. 
The Christian in Society 104 

VII. 
The Christian's Quiet Life 121 



PREFACE. 



MOST of the novels end with marriage. 
When the period of romance is past, and the 
young people settle down to begin the serious 
work of life the novelist seems to lose his inter- 
est in them, and turns away to fresh fields of 
sentiment and pastures new of the tender 
passion. 

The reason of this method may be plain, but 
it is not a good reason. Life after marriage 
needs to be idealized quite as much as life 
before marriage ; its scope is wider, its interests 
larger, its affections deeper and stronger. And 
we may hope that the time will come when 
those who aspire to be the historians of the 
human heart, will represent life in juster propor- 
tions, no longer giving the impression that its 
beauty fades with the orange flowers, and that 



PREFACE. 



its tale is told when the minister's voice pro- 
nounces the twain to be one. 

Something like this has also happened in 
the treatment by the church of those who 
are brought into its communion. Before their 
names are enrolled on the church register, they 
are talked to and written at continually ; a 
great deal of advice, more or less luminous, is 
thrown in their way ; but after that the teaching 
is much less specific, and the impression is apt 
to obtain that the end of all instruction is 
reached at the first communion. Now it must 
be true that some clear and definite religious 
teaching is needed by those who have entered 
the church, as well as by those who seek to 
enter it ; that light should be thrown not only 
on the beginning of the way, but also on its 
after stages. It is important to know how to 
begin to be a Christian, and it is equally impor- 
tant to know how to go on. 

With the hope of making the way plainer, 
this little book has been written. It is designed 
as a sequel to the small volume entitled, " Being 
a Christian." That title might well be given to 
this book ; for it is of being, rather than of 



PREFACE. 7 

becoming that these pages treat. I have heard of 
some who were helped by the other little book 
to enter the Christian way ; I wish that this one 
might lead many from the joy of beginning into 
" the glory of going on." 

Washington Gladden. 

North Church Study, Springfield, 
March 2, 1877. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S AIM. 

The first thing for the young Christian to 
determine is what he is aiming at. 

Christ tells us to be perfect even as our 
Father in heaven is perfect ; and Paul, enforcing 
the same truth, bids us leave the principles 
(rudiments) of the doctrine of Christ and go on 
unto perfection. That, then, is what we ought 
to be aiming at. 

" Perfection ! " you cry. " We cannot be 
perfect, and therefore it is useless to try." Your 
statement is true, but your conclusion does not 
follow. You cannot be perfect, nevertheless it 
is well worth while to try. You cannot draw a 
perfectly straight line, or a perfect curve, and 
probably you never will do either as long as you 
live ; but if you expect to be an artist you must 
keep trying to do these very things. Practice 
will not make a draughtsman's work exactly 



IO THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

and mathematically perfect, but the longer and 
the more faithfully he practises the nearer he will 
come to perfection. Absolute exactness in 
drawing never was achieved and never will be, 
but there have been many artists whose work 
was approximately accurate and very beautiful. 
It would not have been so accurate or so beau- 
tiful, if they had not tried to make it perfect. 
Just so with the art of living. You cannot, 
with your finite powers, live a life of flawless 
rectitude ; but you must bring your work at 
every trial just as near as you can to absolute 
perfection. The highest attainable beauty of 
character is only reached by those who aim at 
perfect goodness. 

It is necessary, then, when you set out in 
your Christian career to fix your mark at perfec- 
tion, and aim at it steadily every day. Nothing 
short of this endeavor will answer at all. 

Just think ! Would it do for a builder to 
say : " I will not try to set this column exactly 
perpendicular ; if it comes pretty near it, that 
is all I care for ? ,! Would a surveyor be justi- 
fied in saying : " I am not going to run this 
north and south boundary line exactly straight ; 



THE CHRISTIAN'S AIM. II 

no matter if it does veer a little to the east or 
the west ? " What sort of music would the 
singer make who did not try to sing in perfect 
tune, but was content with coming within a 
half tone or a quarter-tone of the pitch ? To 
aim at any thing less than perfection would be 
in the singer bad art, in the surveyor bad sci- 
ence, in the builder bad architecture. To aim 
at anything lower than perfection is in the 
Christian disciple bad religion. 

What would you think of one who deliber- 
ately resolved to be less than perfectly truthful, 
or less than perfectly accurate in making change, 
or less than perfectly prompt in keeping his 
promises? I do not say that any one succeeds 
in being perfect in any of these things, but what 
sort of a man is he who either resolves that he 
will not try to be, or, what is practically the 
same thing, refuses to resolve that he will try to 
be ? I think he is the sort of man whom none 
of us want to keep over night. In morals as 
well as in art and in science the standard of per- 
fection is the only standard that can for one 
moment be tolerated. From him who does not 
distinctly recognize it as the rule by which his 



12 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

aims in life are guided, we instantly withdraw 
as from a man of corrupt thought and danger- 
ous influence. That is the fact so far as morals 
are concerned. 

But what is our religion if it is not the divine 
power that aids us in living moral lives ? The 
end at which Christianity aims is a perfect mor- 
ality. The object for which Christ came into 
the world was to save men from trangression of 
the moral law, and to bring them to obey it. 
The work that he does for us reaches its con- 
summation only when this law is enthroned in 
our hearts and in our lives. To be a perfect 
Christian and to be a perfectly moral man, are 
then, at bottom, one and the same thing ; and 
if it is not safe to attempt anything less than 
perfection in morals, it is unsafe to have any 
lower standard than perfection in our religious 
life. 

When I say that to be a perfect Christian is 
the same thing as to be a perfectly moral man, 
I use the word moral in a little larger sense 
than that which some persons are accustomed 
to give to it. The moral law, as the catechism 
says, is "summarily comprehended in the ten com- 



THE CHRISTIAN S AIM. 1 3 

mandments : " and the ten commandments, as 
Christ says, are summed up in these two : " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart 
and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and 
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." That 
is the moral law in its highest and completest 
expression. Now no man can be properly 
called a moral man who does not obey that law. 
He who obeys half of it is not truly a moral 
man. He who is perfect toward his neighbor ; 
but is not perfect toward God is not a moral 
man. Neither is he morally perfect whose 
character is only negative ; who merely obeys 
the prohibitions of the decalogue ; who simply 
does not kill, nor steal, nor cheat, nor lie, nor 
slander, nor covet. Many men wish to pass for 
moral men on the ground that they abstain 
from these evil practices, but it is a very narrow 
and inadequate definition which is given to the 
word moral by those who make this claim. 
Nothing really deserves the name that does not 
signify obedience to the whole law, as Christ has 
laid it down. And beyond this there is nothing, 
above this there is nothing ; it is the supreme 
good of life. Not to destroy this law but to 



14 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

fulfil it, and to give us power that we too might 
fulfil it and thus become the sons of God, was 
the very errand that brought our Saviour down 
to earth. 

Let no man speak then of " mere morality/' 
as if that were somehow a secondary and dis- 
pensable good. Mere morality ! One might as 
well speak of the mere sweetness of sugar, or 
the mere beauty of a rose or the mere correct- 
ness of a sum in addition. To say of a man 
that he merely loves God with all his heart and 
his neighbor as himself is not, I should hope, 
greatly to disparage him ! 

Such, then is the perfection at which in our 
Christian lives we are to aim. It is nothing less 
than entire obedience to the Christian law, per- 
fect consecration to the service of Christ. We 
hear a good deal now-a-days about " the higher 
Christian life." I do not like the phrase. A 
Christian life that finds its end in being a little 
higher than some other Christian life ; a holiness 
that consists in being a little holier than some- 
body else, I do not believe in. The curse of 
Pharisaism is in the comparative degree. The 
division of believers into two classes, the lower 



THE CHRISTIAN S AIM. 1 5 

and the higher, the fine and the superfine, is a 
most mischievous device. Graded schools may 
be very good, but graded churches are an abomi- 
nation whether the grade line be money or cul- 
ture or " holiness. " There is a theory that there 
are two kinds of piety, on one of which a man can 
manage to scrape along and get into heaven when 
he dies ; the other of which is a commodity vastly 
superior; and that the difference between the 
one state and the other is just as clearly marked 
as the difference between the unconverted and 
the converted. This theory has, as I believe, 
no Scriptural foundation, and it is calculated 
to do no inconsiderable damage. Those who 
suppose themselves to have " experienced " this 
higher Christian life, are likely to be lifted up 
with spiritual conceit ; and those who do not 
aspire to it will be encouraged in indolence and 
unfaithfulness. " There is a higher Christian life 
and there is a lower/' they say. But since both 
result in final salvation, what is the use, the 
worldly disciple wants to know, of straining 
after this superior sanctity ? Any road by which 
a man can escape from hell and fly to heaven is a 
good enough road for him. If the church is to 



1 6 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

be graded a great majority of the members will 
be quite content to stop in the lower grade. 

No ; we want no merely higher Christian life. 
Comparative piety is an offence. God's law 
deals only in superlatives. Not toward that 
which is higher, but that which is highest toward 
our thoughts must rise, and our feet must travel. 
No man can be a CI ristian without the honest 
purpose of entire consecration. It is the whole 
heart and nothing less that is demanded of 
every believer. It is demanded at the beginning, 
and what is required at the first moment of the 
Christian life is equally required at every subse- 
quent moment. Surely no less is expected of 
the mature disciple than of the beginner. The 
practiced accountant is not less particular to be 
accurate than the child that is just commencing 
to add. The adopted citizen is not supposed to 
be less loyal after he has been voting ten years, 
than when he first took his oath of allegiance. 
And if a strenuous purpose to give the whole 
heart to God, and to be perfectly conformed to 
his will is the indispensable condition of entering 
upon the Christian life it must be the indispens- 
able condition of continuing in it. 



THE CHRISTIAN S AIM. 1 7 

The failure to understand this truth is the 
cause of many feeble and defective Christian 
lives. The standard set up at the beginning is 
imperfect, and thus all the issues of the life are 
distorted and vitiated. The ship whose com- 
pass needle is deflected by some hidden metal, 
is steered helplessly hither and thither, and is 
fortunate if it be not driven upon the rocks ; and 
thus the life whose aim is not directed at the 
pole star of perfection, is at the mercy of every 
current of caprice, and every gust of passion. 

Many a young Christian starts out with no 
higher purpose than to be about as good as the 
average. Such an one inevitably falls a good 
deal below the average. No man ever comes 
quite up to his ideals in moral or spiritual cul- 
ture ; and if his conceptions are low, his practice 
will be lower still. 

Others set forth with the ambition to be as 
good as the best Christians they know. But 
they forget that these best Christians have at- 
tained to their present high character, not by 
trying to be about as good as somebody else, but 
by trying to do just right every day, to have their 
works perfect before God. No man ever reached 



1 8 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

any exalted spiritual stature by obedience to 
any lower rule of life. That is the only rule. It 
is not " Be as good as Paul or Priscilla or Ed- 
ward Payson or Lady Huntington/' It is not 
" Be as good as the average. " It is u Be per- 
fect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. " 
The projectile that is aimed at the zenith goes 
the highest ; any other range reaches a lower 
plane, and the more the range is depressed, the 
more speedily does gravitation clip the wings of 
the projecting force and bring the body down to 
earth. That is the law of moving bodies, and 
it is equally the law of self-moving and conscious 
souls. 

Because it is the only rational and logical 
thing to do, and because it is the only safe thing 
to do, we ought to set out in the Christian life 
with the determination to come just as near to 
perfection as we can every day we live. But 
there is another reason. We ought to do it 
because it is the easiest thing to do. That 
seems incredible, I know ; but it is true. If 
one is going to be a Christian at all it is easier to 
be a thorough going Christian than to be a half- 
way Christian. It is true that a different opin- 



THE CHRISTIAN S AIM. 19 

ion prevails. Many persons think that the diffi- 
culties of the Christian life are all encountered by 
those who are living consistent and devoted 
lives : that the tempter gives us no trouble so 
long as we are sluggish and unfaithful, but that 
he brings all his forces of temptation and perse- 
cution to bear upon us as soon as we wake up 
and try to do our whole duty. But that, I be- 
lieve, is a grave mistake. The devil is not only a 
fool, he is a coward ; and the more resolute and 
determined the Christian is the less the devil 
will trouble him. Over faithless and timid dis- 
ciples he domineers like an old tyrant, as he is ; 
from the face of the brave and trustful soldier 
of the cross he incontinently flies. 

If the awakened conscience be a vicarious 
conscience, exercised about other people's sins 
fully as much as about those for which it is alone 
responsible,--if the new activity be an activity 
that busies itself mainly with stirring up others 
to a performance of their neglected duties, then, 
very likely, the access of zeal will arouse opposi- 
tion, and what seems like persecution. And I 
have noticed that those Christians who are 
heard complaining that fidelity brings trouble 



20 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

are often this very sort of people who are a 
good deal more concerned to keep their neigh- 
bors in the right way than they are to keep 
the right wav themselves. 

It is true, of course, that sometimes faithful 
living does bring loss and suffering, but even 
then the loss and suffering that are incurred 
through such fidelity are a great deal easier to 
bear than the whips and scorpions of reproving 
conscience with which the unfaithful Christian 
is constantly tormented. 

Look at Paul and Silas down in the dark 
hold of that Philippian dungeon at midnight, 
their feet fast in the stocks ! What are they 
doing? Singing! The two happiest men in that 
city, I warrant you ! Ask them if the thorough- 
going fidelity to Christ of which their lives are 
full is a hard service. Listen! One of them is 
answering : " I take pleasure in infirmities, in 
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in 
distresses for Christ's sake : for when I am weak 
then am I strong." 

In the midst of perils and persecutions, the 
man whose heart is stayed on God thus finds 
His perfect peace. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S AIM. 21 



Look at those two Christians — -both tempted 
to-day in the market-place. The one yields 
to the temptation, and by an act of fraud or 
oppression adds a handsome sum to his hoard, 
the price of iniquity. The other resists the 
temptation. The act of wrong which he might 
have done would have saved him his little 
property ; the act of right which he did do has 
sacrificed it all and he is penniless. Which of 
the two, think you, will go to his couch to-night 
w r ith the lighter heart ? Which is the happier 
man ? Not which will be, by and by, when the 
dead small and great shall stand before God 
and the books shall be opened, but here to-day, 
while the living, small and great, are standing 
before God, and the angel is writing in the 
books the record that shall be read by and by — 
now and here which of the two men is the hap- 
pier ? If you find any trouble in answering that 
question, may God have mercy on your soul ! 
Not to know and feel that losses which come 
through integrity are more to be desired than 
gains that come through sin is to be in the 
gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity ! 

Of course one may fall into such a condition 



22 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

of blindness and stupor that he shall have no 
conscience about sins of this character, but I 
am talking about Christians now, and a man 
without a conscience is not a Christian. The 
Christian may take the wrong road in a matter 
of principle — such things have happened, and 
are happening, alas ! every day ; but he finds it 
always a great deal harder to travel than the 
right road would have been. Long before he 
gets to the end of it he wishes that he had gone 
the other way. 

Let me not seem to say that straight-forward 
honesty and fidelity in this department of life 
is more likely to bring material losses than dis- 
honesty and fraud. I say nothing of the kind. 
All I say is that when tribulations do come to 
the upright Christian he knows how to glory in 
them ; that he has more comfort in his misfor- 
tune than the crooked Christian has in his ill-got- 
ten gains. But beyond all this I have no doubt 
it is true that, even outwardly, the Christian 
who endeavors to rule his life by the highest 
standards of honesty and honor, has in the long- 
run, and on the grand scale, a smoother and 
easier life of it than the Christian who thinks 



THE CHRISTIAN S AIM. 23 

that "business is business " and that " religion 
is religion." "Wisdom's ways are ways of pleas- 
antness " — pleasanter by far, and more pros- 
perous, too, even this side the pearly gates, than 
are the ways of folly. Of course they are. Jeho- 
vah, and not Beelzebub is supreme in this uni- 
verse, — in the whole of it. Never forget that ! 

What has been said of the Christian's service 
in its moral aspects is just as true of it in its 
more strictly religious aspects. It is easier to 
be a good and faithful Christian in every de- 
partment of life than to be a bad and unfaithful 
one. It is easier and pleasanter to do our duties 
thoroughly and promptly than not to do them, 
or to do them in a slipshod and reluctant fash- 
ion. They who do the most Christian work do 
it with the least effort. It is not hard for a man 
to serve Christ, with voice or hands or feet or 
purse, who is at it all the time, whose heart and 
life are full of it. It comes to be as natural as 
breathing, and as good as a feast to him. Not 
to do it would be the hard thing for him. Peo- 
ple talk about Christian labor being a cross, but 
it is no cross to the thorough-going Christian. 
It is his meat and drink. 



24 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

The people in the church who have the 
hardest time are not the people who work, but 
the people who shirk. I am speaking of course 
of those people in the church who have con- 
sciences, who know that there is work to be 
done, and that they ought to help in doing it ; 
but who make up their minds not to do as much 
of it as they can, but to do no more than they 
must. These are the people who live uncom- 
fortable lives. While they are neglectful and 
disobedient conscience keeps scourging them ; 
and when, now and then, they make a desperate 
effort to perform some slight service for the 
easing of this pain, they find it very hard work. 
The joints of the spiritual frame get very rusty 
if they are not exercised, and it hurts us to bend 
them. And not only is there a feeling that the 
effort is severe, there is also a consciousness of 
lost power. The man who does not use his 
strength loses his strength. Any faculty neg- 
lected is speedily impaired. One of our mis- 
sionaries, who has been in this country on ac- 
count of ill health for three years told me the 
other day that he had nearly lost the use of the 
language in which he had learned to preach ; 



THE CHRISTIAN'S AIM. 25 



that it would cost him months of study if 
he should return to regain his Bulgarian 
vocabulary. So with the language of the 
spiritual life. If you do not keep speaking 
it, you lose the use of it, and when you 
try to open your mouth, you stammer and 
are dumb. 

Is not all this true, my friends? Perhaps 
there may be those among you who know by a 
sorry experience that it is true. You have been 
trying to live a half-way Christian life, — or a 
little less than that, perhaps ! Have you found 
it a comfortable life? Has not a feeling of 
unrest and dissatisfaction made its home in your 
heart, and kept you miserable ? Has not this 
consciousness of your waning power, this ex- 
perience of embarrassment and painful effort 
whenever you have tried to say or do anything 
for Christ distressed and humiliated you ? 
Would you not have been happier Christians, if 
you had been more faithful Christians? Has 
not your comfort been in exact proportion to 
your fidelity, and have not the ease and pleas- 
antness of the labors you have undertaken for 
the Master, been also in exact proportion to the 



26 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

thoroughness and promptness with which they 
have been done ? 

I know that it is so. I know that there is no 
other way in which the Christian can find any 
peace except that perfect way in which the 
Psalmist strove to walk. Not one of us is 
always in it ; not one of us but wanders from it 
now and then ; but happiness is not found any- 
where outside of it, and they who are furthest 
from it are furthest from true peace. All you 
then, who have begun to be Christians, no mat- 
ter when you began, remember that the path in 
which your feet is set leads up to perfection, 
and that you ought to be walking on in it 
steadily every day. To do the right perfectly, 
whenever the right is shown ; to shun the 
wrong always, whenever the wrong is seen ; to 
neglect no Christian service, to leave unim- 
proved no opportunity of Christian growth,- - 
this is the only rational thing, the only safe 
thing, the only easy thing to do. You will not 
always accomplish it, but you cannot afford to 
undertake anything less. He who knows our 
frame, .because he has worn it, will be patient 
with our failings so long as our aim is the high- 



THE CHRISTIANS AIM. 2J 

est ; when we wander and stumble he will help 
us to rise and will lead us back into the perfect 
path ; and by and by, blessed hope ! out of 
the reach of the sin and the stain, we shall walk 
with him in white, in the Paradise of God. 



II 

THE CHRISTIAN'S CALLING. 

Christian perfection is a sphere whose 
hemispheres are a perfect culture and a perfect 
service. It is of culture, I suppose, that Paul is 
speaking, when he says that he w r rites to the 
Philippians, not as one who is " already per- 
feet," but as one who is following after perfec- 
tion and striving to attain it. And it is to ser- 
vice that he refers when he prays for the He- 
brews that the God of peace will make them 
" perfect in every good work to do his will." To 
be good, and to do good are the two objects set 
before the Christian ; to develop a perfect 
character by rendering a perfect service, is the 
mark of the prize of his high calling in Christ 
Jesus. 

Which of these objects ought to be first ? 
Should our first care be to purify and ennoble 
ourselves, or to do good to others as we have 
opportunity? 



THE CHRISTIANS CALLING. 29 

Practically it is hard to keep these two aims 
distinct. True culture, Christian culture, leads 
to service, and expresses itself in service, con- 
tinually ; while faithful and loving service is the 
very best means of promoting Christian culture. 

Something that goes by the name of culture 
and that has nothing at all to do with service, is 
abroad in the land. It is a culture that deals w r ith 
the intellect and the taste, and, to some extent 
with the conscience, but that does not change 
the ruling love ; a culture whose result is not the 
enlargement of the whole nature but the refine- 
ment of a part of it, and the crippling of the rest ; 
a culture that shuts men out from all pursuits that 
are not agreeable, and from all society that is not 
stimulating, and makes self-pleasing rather than 
benevolence the law of life. Of course the vo- 
taries of this sort of culture, even though they 
may be members of our churches, are not likely 
to have much trouble in settling this question. 
Those who love themselves so much better than 
their neighbors that they will have nothing what- 
ever to do with any of them but such as can 
minister to their profit or their enjoyment are 
not in any proper sense Christians, and are not 



30 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

interested in discovering the relation between 
Christian culture and Christian service. 

These words are not addressed to persons of 
this class, but rather to those who have chosen 
Christ as their Master, and who wish to be his 
true disciples. And any one who with a sincere 
mind has sought to be instructed in the things 
of his kingdom, must have learned that the law 
of service is among the supreme laws of that 
kingdom. If it is not the very highest law, it is 
surely one of the highest. For they have heard 
the Master himself saying : 

" The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship 
over them, and they that exercise authority 
upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall 
not be so : but he that is greatest among you let 
him be as the younger ; and he that is chief as 
he that doth serve. For whether is greater, 
he that sitteth at meat or he that serveth ? Is 
not he that sitteth at meat ? But I am among 
you as he that serveth." 

Even those who acknowledge this Master, 
however, and who are faithfully trying to follow 
him, may, if you put the question to them, find 
it difficult to answer whether holiness is more to 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CALLING. 3 1 

be desired than usefulness. They know that 
Jesus went about doing good, and they know 
also that he came to save us from our sins ; so 
that if we accept his grace and become his disci- 
ples, we shall surely be led not only toward ser- 
vice, but also toward sanctification. The Chris- 
tian cannot become good without doing good ; 
neither can he do good without becoming good. 
A holiness which is not the handmaid of benev- 
olence, is a spurious holiness ; a benevolence 
which is divorced from integrity and purity of 
life is a cheat and a snare. The Christian idea is 
that the two must always go together, that a 
separation of them makes a fatal breach in the 
character. 

Unhappily they are often separated. There 
is a Pharisaism which devotes all its energies to 
the cultivation of personal righteousness, without 
doing anything for the good of others ; and there 
is a sentimental philanthropy which makes out 
that the doer of generous deeds is a saint, no 
matter how vile his life may be. It is hardly 
necessary to portray and denounce Pharisaism, 
for our popular literature during the last thirty 
years has been making this exposure so con- 



32 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

stantly and so thoroughly that nothing remains 
to be said. It is perfectly safe to abuse the 
Pharisee ; he has no friends. But in their cru- 
sade against Pharisaism our sentimentalists have 
developed a type of character which is no less 
disgusting. That is the good Samaritan with 
bad morals ; the man who is unfaithful in nearly 
all the relations of life, and dissolute in all his 
habits, but whose generous impulses lead him to 
do a great many kind things, and even to make 
sacrifices for his fellows. In these popular por- 
traitures integrity and purity are not only di- 
vorced from benevolence, but are even con- 
trasted with it, so that the impression is some- 
times made that it is rather a contemptible thing 
to be just and clean; and that if a man is only 
kind hearted and self-sacrificing it matters not 
how great a rake he is. Thus, to give a plain 
instance, Mr. John Hay glorifies his hero, Jim 
Bludso, who stood at his post and burned to 
death, as a man who " never lied," though, ac- 
cording to the poet's own account, he had two 
wives, living in different parts of the country. 
Just how a man could have two wives at the 
same time without lying to one or both of them, 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CALLING. 33 

the poet does not tell us. But infidelity of this 
description is, in all this sort of literature, a mere 
peccadillo ; that sort of lying doesn't count ; 
some deed that is done with a generous impulse 
sponges out all that shame. Sentimentalism of 
this sort is not only sickly, it is nauseating. 
We cannot too soon understand that generosity 
can never be a substitute for integrity, and that 
the character in which the two principles are di- 
vorced is a radically unsound character, no mat- 
ter which of them may have the supremacy. 

What, then, must be our answer to this ques- 
tion ? Is there no choice between holiness and 
benevolence ? Are they equally to be desired ? 
Should neither of them take precedence of the 
other in our thought ? 

It is not an easy question to answer, because, 
as I have shown, they cannot practically be sep- 
arated. Yet I think that there is a choice be- 
tween them, and that in fixing our aim in life, 
the preference must be given to benevolence 
rather than to holiness, to service rather than to 
culture. The two must always go together, but 
benevolence must lead. In their practice Phar- 
isees and sentimentalists are equally wrong, but 
2* 



34 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

in their theories, the sentimentalists are a little 
nearer right than the Pharisees. 

You will see that service rather than sanctifi- 
cation is to be our supreme aim, if you remember 
that the law of life is the law of love. This law 
does not forbid a rational self-love, for we are to 
love our neighbors as ourselves, but the tendency 
which it gives to the affections is outward, rather 
than inward. We are to love God with all the 
heart, and the only proof of love is service — u If 
ye love me keep my commandments." We are 
to love our neighbors as ourselves, and this love 
can only find expression in our efforts to do them 
good. So far then as this law is obeyed, its effect 
must be to turn the man's thought away from 
himself, toward God and his neighbor, — to make 
him think that it is more important that he 
should serve them than that he should labor for 
his own sanctification. Of course he will not 
neglect his own soul, — he will keep himself un- 
spotted from the world ; but he will always put 
above his own interests, temporal and spiritual, 
the service of God and of his fellow men. 

The first thing to do is to break the sceptre 
of the reigning selfishness. The law of Christ 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CALLING. 35 



meets this old law that is in the members, and 
summons it to surrender. There is no compro- 
mise between them, — there cannot be. No joint 
supremacy is allowed and no concurrent juris- 
diction. "You have been loving yourself su- 
premely," says Christ ; " now you must renounce 
that allegiance and love God with all the heart 
and your neighbor as yourself." 

Nothing can be done for the purification of 
any man's character till he ceases to make self the 
centre of his thought and effort. The first step 
to perfection leads out of self. Therefore the 
law of Christ is not primarily a law of culture but 
a law of service. 

I have dwelt upon this point because it is of 
considerable importance. If one makes his own 
sanctification the chief object of desire and effort, 
even though he may believe that sanctification 
can only be secured through service and sacri- 
fice, yet because the supreme aim centres in self, 
all his generous acts are vitiated by the thought 
of the advantage that is to accrue. Thus the 
reigning selfishness does not surrender, it only 
shifts its position and flies its flag from the 
citadel of Mansoul, instead of the outer wall. 



36 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

Thus many a man is as selfish in his religion as 
he ever was in his trade or his amusements. 
He is a miser of spiritual gains : his whole 
thought is of his own moods and conditions. 
The only remedy for this distemper is the reali- 
zation of the truth that the end of all Christian 
endeavor is service, rather than culture. 

. Paul's question, when the light from heaven 
smote him, was, then, the right question : 
" What wilt Thou have me to do ? " Not first, 
What wilt thou have me to be ? but what wilt 
thou have me to do ? The being is the result of 
the doing ; the perfect Christian character is the 
fruit of the perfect Christian conduct. And the 
ruling motive of the conduct is not to be self- 
love, but love for God and for our fellow men. 

What answer does Paul's life give to his 
question. When the scales fall from his eyes at 
the touch of Ananias, and he is baptized into the 
name of that Christ whom he came to Damascus 
to persecute, how does he begin his Christian 
life ? Does his first thought seem to be of self 
improvement, or of service? We are told that 
" straightway he preached Christ in the syna- 
gogues. " As he began, so he went on. Through- 



THE CHRISTIAN S CALLING. 37 

out that part of his life of which we have knowl- 
edge his energies were wholly given to service. 
The moral and spiritual culture that he gained 
was not sought as an end, it came to him as the 
result of faithful and self-denying work. 

It does not, however, follow that because 
Paul, after his conversion, went straightway into 
the synagogue and preached, we must all go 
into public places and begin to preach. We 
may adopt the same rule of service that he 
adopted, but we may not all be called to the 
same kind of service. Paul was a thoroughly 
educated man ; he had graduated from the most 
famous school of Jewish learning; he was famil- 
iar with the Hebrew Scriptures, and he was in 
every respect qualified for the kind of labor to 
which he devoted his life. It was a very im- 
portant, perhaps the most important branch of 
the Christian service that he chose ; but there 
are many ways of doing good besides public 
speaking, and it is quite likely that the duties 
to which we are first summoned may be of a 
different kind from those in which he was en- 
gaged. 

Our Master himself often preached in public 



3 3 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

places, but that, after all, was a very small part 
of his work. Not only did he in his conversa- 
tions with men, in their homes and by the way- 
side, repeat to them the Gospel of his King- 
dom ; not only did he in his many marvelous 
works relieve their wants, and heal their sick- 
nesses ; by methods less marvelous than these 
he manifested his glory, and drew men unto 
himself. When it is said that he went about 
doing good, I think it is meant, not only that 
he wrought miracles of mercy, and taught with 
lips divine the mysteries of grace, but also that 
his presence, wherever he went, was a benedic- 
tion ; that his kindly speech and his gentle 
spirit, his countless words of sympathy and 
encouragement, his nameless deeds of fidelity 
and of friendliness, made the hearts of men 
glow within them. That part of Chrises life 
which was most truly divine, most deeply and 
powerfully helpful to men, was not reported 
because it was unreportable. It was what found 
expression in his looks and tones, in " the man- 
ner of his spirit/' rather than in the matter of 
his speech. 

It is in these less conspicuous virtues, that 



THE CHRISTIAN'S CALLING. 39 

we shall wisely begin to imitate him. " He that 
is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in 
much," the Master says. If we can serve well in 
these lower walks of usefulness we shall learn to 
do larger duties when they summon us. 

Home is a good place to begin. There is no 
little good to be done within the four walls of 
that temple. No service is more sacred than 
that to which our homes call us. In no place in 
the world can we hope to be more useful than in 
that place wherein we spend our daily lives. 
There are, of course, strictly religious duties 
that we owe to those with whom we live. We 
ought to desire their spiritual welfare above 
everything else, and to find ways of expressing 
that desire. But this is only one of the duties 
that we owe them, and this duty is best done 
when we have evinced our sincerity and our fidel- 
ity in other ways and by many infallible proofs. 
There are a thousand methods in which we may 
put our religion in practice in our homes, and 
practice goes further than preaching there and 
everywhere. The spirit of Christ is the spirit of 
unselfish service, and it ought to find expression 
in all our conduct. To do good continually to 



40 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

the inmates of our homes ; to speak kindly to 
them, always ; to lighten their burdens of care 
and labor in every possible way ; to seek their 
comfort and pleasure rather than our own ; to 
make cheerfully the little sacrifices that their 
happiness requires ; to be patient with their 
faults, while faithfully and tenderly endeavoring 
to correct them, — such service as this it is to 
which Christ calls us in our homes. I doubt 
whether he has any more important service than 
this awaiting us anywhere. Yet there is reason 
to fear that this kind of Christian work is greatly 
overlooked. We do not always think, when we 
ask the Lord what he would have us to do for 
him, of the sacrifices that we may lay upon the 
altar of the home — more precious in his sight 
than whole burnt offerings. It is in this sphere 
that the religious character is most sharply 
tested, and it is in this sphere that its most 
beautiful development is reached. The Chris- 
tian who is thoroughly good at home, who min- 
isters at that altar with steadfast patience and 
loving fidelity, can hardly fail to have influence 
away from home ; while he who fails to manifest 
in the private walks of life the graces of that 



THE CHRISTIAN S CALLING. 4 1 

religion which he commends in public places, 
can scarcely hope that his word will be with 
power. 

In other quiet ways outside the home oppor- 
tunities of service will be found. There are 
chances enough to say friendly words, and to 
do helpful deeds, if one is only looking out for 
them. There are plenty of rough places to be 
made smooth, and crooked places to be made 
straight, and the heart that is intent on doing 
good will delight to discover them. And my 
point is that these neighborly words and deeds, 
that spring from a thoughtful regard for the wel- 
fare of others, and a self-sacrificing purpose to 
secure their happiness, are in the truest sense 
Christian service. That is the most excellent 
way of fulfilling the law of Christ ; better than 
tongues, better than prophecies, better than 
miracles. 

Yet I am sure that many good people never 
think of these unselfish endeavors in the little 
details of social intercourse to promote the wel- 
fare of their neighbors, as being in any sense 
Christian service. Serving Christ, they think, is 
speaking in the prayer-meeting, teaching in the 



42 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

Sunday school, distributing tracts, visiting the 
widow and the fatherless in their affliction, con- 
versing with the impenitent about their souls, 
and all such work. Now all this is important, 
as we shall see hereafter, but after all a great 
deal of genuine and valuable Christian work is 
done in such ways as I have mentioned, in these 
quiet ministries of brotherly kindness, and all 
work that is done with a Christian spirit and a 
Christian purpose is Christian work. He who 
gives a cup of cold water in the name of a dis- 
ciple shall in no wise lose his reward. 

Of course you will not desire the temporal 
enjoyment of your neighbors more than their 
spiritual welfare, and in your care for their com- 
fort you will keep wishing for the opportunity 
and the power to do them a higher service ; but 
the main thing is to get yourself installed in 
the purpose and the habit of doing them good, 
of ministering to them and blessing them in 
every possible way. When that becomes the 
impulse of your life it will be quite impossible 
for you to forget their deeper necessities, and 
the more enduring joys to which, if they are not 
serving your Master, they are still strangers. 



THE CHRISTIAN S CALLING. 43 

But you ought to remember that any honest 
endeavor to confer benefits upon your neighbors 
is a truly Christian service ; that in this field of 
labor there is always plenty to do, and that it is 
quite impossible for any of us to have too much 
of this sort of religion. 

Not only by acts of kindness can we serve 
our fellows, but also by acts of fidelity, by stead- 
fast adherence to truth and duty. Many of 
them are measuring their lives by false stand- 
ards. Not only by our example, but also by 
such sincere and faithful words as we may have 
a right to speak, let us lift up before them a 
better standard. Many of them are vain and 
frivolous, thinking more of appearances than of 
realities; can we not by our conduct, and by an 
earnest word- dropped now and then, show them 
a sounder way of thinking, and a better way of 
living ? That is a most important service which 
we render to our neighbors when we set before 
them an example of integrity, of purity, of faith- 
fulness to every obligation, of inflexible adher- 
ence to the truth ; and thus by life as well as by 
precept endeavor to lead them in wisdom's 
ways, This kind of service calls for- firmness as 



44 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

well as kindness ; steady walking in the light of 
our own convictions ; constant choice of duty 
above pleasure ; — no obtrusive thrusting of our 
notions upon other people, but a readiness to 
stand by them and live up to them at whatever 
cost. By such fidelity and devotion as this we 
can do our neighbors more good than by any 
other method. 

" Let your light so shine before men that 
they may see your good works and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven." It is all summed 
up by saying that we ought to set out in our 
Christian lives remembering that we are the 
followers of one who went about doing good — 
that his mission is our mission — that our main 
business is to do good, and that we must not 
look too high nor too far off for our opportunities 
of doing good, seeing that the most and the 
best of them lie very near our doors ; seeing 
that the bringing of a Christian temper and of 
a self-denying purpose into the details of our 
home life, and into all our social and neighborly 
and business intercourse — to brighten the lives 
of those who walk beside us in the way, to help 



THE CHRISTIAN S CALLING. 45 

them as we can in bearing their burdens, and to 
lead them if we may into the ways of truth and 
peace — is the very highest kind of service that 
any man can think of rendering. " What could 
an angel more ? " 



III. 

THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 

It is taken for granted that the persons to 
whom these words are addressed, being Chris- 
tians, are members of Christ's church. 

If they are Christians they are disciples of 
Christ, and the Church is Christ's school, in 
which, by his appointment, instruction is given 
to as many as desire to learn the word of truth 
and the way of life. 

If they are Christians, they are " workers to- 
gether with Him," and his work in this world is 
mainly done by organization, and the church is 
the organization by which his work is done. 
Much may be done, no doubt, by influences 
purely spiritual, but as human beings now are, 
the church of God must have an outward form, 
a bodily organism, in order that it may live and 
thrive in the world. There is just the same 
need that the church should be incarnate in a 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 47 

visible assembly, as there was that Christ should 
be incarnate in a visible body. No religious 
impression can be made upon the dull senses of 
the children of men without putting the reli- 
gious life into palpable forms. Moreover power 
is gained by organization ; the work is subdi- 
vided and wisely directed, and larger results are 
obtained. It is just as unreasonable for a Chris- 
tian to refuse to join the church and to insist on 
doing his Christian work independently, as it 
would be for a patriot to refuse to enlist in the 
army that was defending his country, and to 
insist on fighting the invader alone. In* the 
Christian warfare organization is necessary as 
well as in the conflicts with carnal weapons ; 
and it is therefore necessary that all the effec- 
tive strength we have be added to our army. 
The camp-followers may have a very patriotic 
feeling, but it is not in that part of the force 
that the good soldier wants to be counted. 

Furthermore, if he is a Christian, he recog- 
nizes the command of Christ as his law, and 
Christ commands his disciples to be baptized. 
No exceptions are mentioned, no alternative is 
suggested. He who wishes to obey implicitly 



48 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

the word of the Lord will avail himself of the 
first opportunity to receive baptism as his dis- 
ciple. His response to the Gospel will be the 
word of the Ethiopian chamberlain. " See, here 
is water ; what doth hinder me to be baptized ? " 
" But are there not Christians who are not 
Church members ?" you ask. No doubt there 
are ; just as there are Christians who do not 
study their Bibles. The Bible is the revelation 
of God to men, and Christ has commanded us to 
study it. Yet there are those who seem to think 
they know enough already, or who imagine that 
the^can learn of God what they need to know 
in nature or by direct inspiration, and who there- 
fore disobey Christ's command to search the 
Scriptures. This command is certainly no more 
explicit than the command to be baptized, and 
to confess Christ openly before men. And the 
reason of obedience is as clear in one case as in 
the other. The Bible is the treasury of Chris- 
tian truth, and therefore all those who desire to 
be wise unto salvation ought to study it ; the 
church is the organization for Christian work, 
and, therefore, all those who desire to be about 
the Master's business in this world ought to join 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 49 

it. It is true that some religious work is done 
outside the church ; and it is also true that some 
religious truth is found outside the Bible. 

The man who professes to be a servant of 
Christ, and yet neglects to join the church, is 
therefore, just as foolish and just as disobedient, 
as the man who professes to be a disciple of 
Christ, and yet neglects to study the Bible. I do 
not choose to take it for granted that the Chris- 
tians to whom these counsels are addressed are 
either foolish or disobedient, and therefore I 
must conclude that they are either in the church 
already, or mean to connect themselves with it 
at the earliest possible moment. 

There are, however, two doors by which men 
go into the visible Church, the door of self-in- 
terest and the door of consecration. The great 
majority of those who enter the church go in by 
the door of self-interest. The great majority of 
those who begin the Christian life do so with 
the hope of personal advantage. 

Now let me not be misunderstood. I am not 
saying that most of our church members joined 
the church for the sake of increasing their busi- 
ness, nor for the sake of securing a better social 
3 



50 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

position. Such an accusation would be a slan- 
der. The number of those who seek admission 
to our churches simply or mainly in view of 
worldly advantages that may accrue to them in 
the relation, is, I believe, very small, The self- 
interest which is the ruling motive at the begin- 
ning of most Christian lives, is of a much higher 
and worthier type. The advantage sought is 
not carnal but moral and spiritual. The man 
enters the church because he expects to find in 
its fellowship and in its worship a help in over- 
coming sin and in attaining unto virtue. He 
goes in because he thinks it will do him good, — 
that it will aid him in securing the highest good. 
Now although this is self-interest of a very 
wholesome sort, it is still self-interest. The 
man's main concern is his own welfare ; his 
thought centres on himself. 

I do not complain that men go into the church 
by this door. I am glad that they do. I wish 
that this kind of self-seeking would begin to 
spread. The ambition to be free from sin, to 
build up a perfect character, is a very noble 
ambition — next to the noblest. And if any one 
accepts Christ as his Saviour from sin, and seeks 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 5 I 

to enter Christ's church because he believes that 
in its associations and its services he will obtain 
strength for his warfare with the evil, and his pur- 
suit of the good, he ought to be most heartily 
welcomed. If he is sincere and earnest in his 
search after righteousness, he will soon make the 
discovery that the sin from which he is seeking 
to be saved is in its essence selfishness ; and that 
the way to be rid of it is to begin to think less 
about himself and more about others — " to look 
out and not in, and to lend a hand." 

When he comes to that, he will find himself 
in company with those who entered the church 
by the other door — the door of consecration ; 
whose main motive in seeking admission to it was 
not the hope of personal advantage, but the 
desire to help in doing the Lord's work. There 
are church members who came in by that door. 
There are those who, at the first surrender of 
their lives to Christ, comprehended his saying : 
" If any man will come after me let him deny 
himself," — and who therefore came to the portals 
of the church, seeking not to be ministered unto 
but to minister. 

It makes a world of difference with the com- 



52 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

fort and the usefulness of a Christian which of 
these motives is the ruling motive in his life. 
The man who is seeking his own welfare as the 
supreme object of his desire, even though it may 
be his spiritual welfare rather than his temporal 
advantage that he is seeking — is not in the mood 
of service. It is vastly better that he should be 
intent on this higher good, than that he should 
be hungering after sensual gratification or worldly 
gains or honors ; but so long as this is the tem- 
per of his life he must still be numbered among 
those who seek their own and not the things 
which are Jesus Christ's. We are glad to have 
people come into the church for the sake of the 
good they can get ; but they area much less 
useful and a much more troublesome class of 
church members than those who come in for the 
sake of the good they can do. Just in propor- 
tion as the man's thoughts centre upon himself, 
and upon the good that he is going to receive 
from the relation, socially or spiritually, will he 
fail to get what he is looking for. Such a per- 
son is very liable to fall into a discontented and 
complaining mood. Ninety-nine hundredths of 
all the dissatisfaction that exists among church 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 53 

members grows out of some real or imagined 
neglect on the part of somebody to minister to 
their selfhood. 

It is said, and some of us have reason to 
know that it is true, that great advantages of a 
moral and spiritual nature come to us through 
the family relation. That in these dear intima- 
cies of the home our characters are purified, and 
our whole natures ennobled, who does not be- 
lieve? But in order that this result may be 
realized, it is necessary that we enter into this 
relation with the disposition and the purpose of 
self-forgetfulness. Suppose that each member 
of the household is all the while looking out for 
his own comfort or benefit ; all the while keep- 
ing watch to see how much he is going to be 
waited on and petted ; how much he is going 
to be improved in his temper and his morals ; 
whether the net result of this association is 
going to be on the side of profit or loss in his 
personal account — what sort of a home would 
that be ? Does not every body know that it 
could only be a cage of discords and alienations? 
Is it not the plainest truth that the law of Christ 
which bids us bear one another's burdens, which 



54 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

commands us to look not every one on his own 
things but also on the things of others, is the 
only law by which family life can be made en- 
durable? And is it not the experience of those 
who, in the household, have faithfully tried to 
put this law in practice, that there is no happi- 
ness to be compared with that which grows out 
of the sweet accord, the sacred fellowship and 
the loving ministry of the Christian home? Well 
Christ's law applies to his church, quite as truly 
as to oui families ; and it is quite as impossible for 
one to derive the highest good from his associa- 
tion with the church if his supreme thought is 
of his own welfare, as it would be to find profit 
in the family life with that spirit ruling him. 

While, therefore, I am glad to have people 
come into the church by the door of self-interest, 
I know that they will be neither happy nor useful 
there very long, if they do not rise to a higher 
plane of action, and begin to work not for their 
own welfare but for the good of others. And 
by whichever door you went in, you ought not 
to stop till you find yourselves in company with 
those who went in by the door of consecration, 
and who are seeking first the kingdom of God, 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 55 

rather than to read their own titles clear to man- 
sions in the skies. You will not be of much use 
anywhere till you have discovered that you are 
not the centre of the universe, and that you are 
the servant of one who u died for all that they 
which live should not henceforth live unto them- 
selves." Those members of the church that are 
governed by this spirit never have any discon- 
tents to ventilate ; never complain of neglect ; 
never fail to find plenty of appreciation. Their 
concern is not how much they are going to draw 
out of the joint stock of good will and helpful 
fellowship week by week, but how much they 
will be able to put in, If they are troubled 
about anything it is not that they receive less 
than they should of notice and consideration, 
but that they give less than they would of ser- 
vice and brotherly kindness. 

This, then, is the spirit by which every 
Christian ought to be governed in his relation 
to the church, because this is the spirit of 
Christ. And if this is your spirit it will be easy 
for you to learn to do the work to which the 
church calls all its members. 

In the first place, you will not wait for 



$6 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 



somebody to go after you and beseech you to 
lend your aid ; you will go yourself and ask for 
work. " Here am I ; send me ! " will be your 
prompt answer to that call for laborers which 
does not need to be spoken, because it rings in 
all our ears continually. Go right to your min- 
ister or your Sunday School Superintendent and 
tell him you want something to do. It may 
take his breath away the first time, for such ap- 
plications are not near so frequent as the ring 
of the tramp at the basement door bell ; but 
never mind ! if you break it gently to him, he 
will bear up under it, probably, and perhaps, 
after several experiences of this sort, he may 
even come to enjoy it. At any rate, I am very 
sure that he will be able to find some service 
for you. And why, I beg to know, is it not 
your duty to ask for it, instead of waiting to be 
urged to undertake it ? Suppose that some 
terrible accident occurs and scores of wounded 
and needy sufferers are thrown ypon the care of 
the public. Immediately methods of relief are 
organized ; by general consent somebody takes 
charge of the work, and gives direction how it 
must be done. The sufferers are at your doors, 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 57 

in perishing need of immediate attention. It is 
nobody's official duty to take care of them ; it 
is simply the obligation of charity, and it rests 
on all alike. What will you all do now ? Will 
you sit still in your houses and wait to be sent 
for, or will you volunteer ? What would be the 
dictate of simple humanity ? What would you 
think of the man who excused himself for neg- 
lecting to do anything for these sufferers on the 
ground that nobody had asked him to do any 
thing? Now the need of Christian work in con- 
nection with all our churches is really just as 
immediate and just as urgent, as the need of 
charitable work in such a case. It does not 
address itself quite so palpably to our senses, 
but it is none the less a crying need. The 
harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are 
few. And no one who has any adequate idea 
of the urgency of this work, or of the spirit in 
which it ought to be prosecuted, will wait to be 
urged to enter upon it. 

Ask for work, then. Wherever you may be 
sojourning, with whatever church you may be 
worshipping, report for duty. Go right to head- 
quarters and say : " Here I am ! I have no 

3* 



58 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

boasts to utter about my own capacity, but such 
gifts as I have I want to make the most of. 
Use me. Judge for yourself what I am good 
for and set me at it ; I'll do my level best, what- 
ever it is. If you find that I don't succeed in 
it, and that somebody else would do better, then 
put somebody else in my place, and give me 
something that I can do. I don't want the best 
place nor the easiest place ; I want the place 
where I can do the most good, and I want you 
to judge where that is." 

That, it seems to me, is the spirit in which 
the church member ought to approach church 
work. He ought to accept every service as- 
signed to him, if it be at all possible for him 
to perform it, and he ought to discharge its 
duties to the best of his ability. He ought 
not to suppose that his pastor or the leaders 
of church work are so insincere as to assign 
him to a service which they do not want 
him to perform, or which they do not think 
him capable of performing ; and their judg- 
ment as to the best man for the work is 
probably quite as good as his. Let him take 
up the duty therefore cheerfully, and do 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 59 

his best to justify the confidence reposed 
in him. 

Not seldom service is refused on the plea of 
incompetency. It is a plea that a soldier never 
thinks of making, and that a Christian ought to 
be ashamed to make. If you cannot stand at 
the post assigned you, you can fall there. 

Laziness and faithlessness go stalking abroad 
in all our churches under the garb of modesty. 
It sounds a great deal better to say " I am not 
capable," than to say " I am too indolent/' or 
" My heart is too full of other interests/' If you 
are the willing worker that you ought to be you 
will have no occasion to resort to any of these 
small hypocrisies. 

Don't be numbered among the decliners. 
Some of the religious teachers say that this is 
an age of declension. However this may be I 
am sure that it is a declining age. 

Of all things doleful in speech or sign 
This is the dolefullest " I decline ! " 

After one has heard that said four or five 
times in the course of one meeting, he wants to 
go home. Don't say it. Unless it is an absolute 



60 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

impossibility, accept, cheerfully, every position 
to which you are chosen. 

Some one has said that the whole human 
race may be divided into two classes, — those 
who will serve on committees and those who 
will not. The first class will because they say 
" somebody must ; " the second class won't be- 
cause they say " somebody will." Be sure and 
belong to the first class. 

Do not, however, always wait to be assigned 
to service. There are certain services to which 
you may assign yourself. A recruiting officer 
in Christ's army requires no commission. The 
work of gathering in them that are without is 
one of the most important kinds of work, and 
that is best done without definite plan, as oppor- 
tunity offers. When you meet those who have 
no regular place of worship ask them to come to 
church with you. Tell them that you will wait 
for them at the door, and see that they are pro- 
vided with a seat. Make them feel that they 
will be welcome if they come, and when they 
come, make them feel that they are welcome. 
Have this word of invitation always in your 
mind and lose no opportunity of speaking it. 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 6l 



Men are not saved by going to church, but go- 
ing to church is a means of grace, and it is a 
most useful work to bring those who now neg- 
lect it to avail themselves of it. Recruit for the 
Sunday school and the prayer-meeting also. If 
you attend a good meeting, remember it and 
mention it to those who were not there. If 
they see that these social services have kindled 
a flame of sacred love in your heart, perhaps 
they will want to come and warm themselves by 
the same fire. 

Of course this implies that you will attend 
yourself upon these services. By your constant 
presence, you will do what you can to sustain 
them. They also serve who only stand and are 
counted. That is sometimes a most momen- 
tous duty. And they who can always answer 
" Here " when the roll of the battalion is called, 
are in that very act most useful helpers. Con- 
cerning your active participation in these services 
I shall have something to say hereafter. I only 
wish now to urge the importance of giving them 
your countenance — not metaphorically, but liter- 
ally. There are a great many little services that 
need to be performed in connection with every 



62 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

church, services which fall to nobody in partic- 
ular and which will be neglected unless there 
be vigilant eyes to look out for them and will- 
ing hands to undertake them. There is a good 
deal of business to be done which is every- 
body's business. You know what the proverb 
is. Let me suggest to you a better reading: 
What is everybody's business is nobody's, and 
what is nobody's business is mine. Look after 
the little duties that other people are likely to 
neglect. 

There is one other work which you may 
safely assign yourself. That is the work of pro- 
moting acquaintance and good fellowship in 
the congregation to which you belong. Appoint 
yourself a member of the welcome committee. 
Make it a point to speak a polite and pleasant 
word not only to those who worship regularly 
with you, but to occasional visitors and especially 
to strangers. 

" James a servant of God and of the Lord 
Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scat- 
tered abroad greeting*" That is the way the 
grand old apostle begins his encyclical letter. 
Thank God for James and the first verse of his 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE CHURCH. 63 

epistle ! Get it by heart and carry it in the grip 
of your hand and the look of your face wherever 
you go, but especially when you go to church ! 

My friends, that is a noble and inspiring ser- 
vice to which we are called by the church to 
which we belong. To build it up and strengthen 
it ; to beautify not only the place of God's 
sanctuary but also the spiritual house of which 
it is the shelter ; to labor in season and out of 
season to make the church that is precious to 
God honorable in the sight of men, — this is a 
work that may well call forth the enthusiasm of 
every man to whom the highest things are dear. 
There is no kind of labor in which we can engage 
whose result will last so long, and tell so power- 
fully on the good of those who shall come after 
us, as that which we give to the edifying of the 
body of Christ. 

The collegians going forth from the halls of 
their Alma Mater, plant — each class of them — a 
vine that shall climb upon the walls and clothe 
them with greenness in the summer, and with 
purple robes in the autumn, so that life, tarrying 
after they are gone and building for them shall 
help to decorate the places that have grown so 



64 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

dear. Let it be ours, my friends, to plant some 
seed of truth, or some germ of love, that shall 
live and grow after we have gone, rising from 
the foundations of that spiritual house which is 
our home, entwining itself through all its sacred 
forms, through all its solemn ministries, and 
helping to. clothe it with beauty and with glory 
in the centuries to come. 



IV. 

THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 

We have had, of late, a good deal of talk 
against talk. Carlyle, himself an everlasting 
talker, set the fashion of denouncing talk ; and 
all the glib little fellows who have nothing to say 
have been swift to follow it. When there is noth- 
ing else to ridicule, a tirade against talk is in order. 
Doesn't it ever occur to these people that the 
evil, if evil it be, is not mended by increasing it ? 
that you do not cause the flood to abate by 
emptying your own dipperful into its swollen 
current ? 

Let us have this topic treated with a little 
discrimination. The cant about silence is as 
offensive as any other kind of cant. There is a 
time to keep silence, doubtless ; and there is 
also a time to speak. 

Of insincere talk. there is reason enough to 
complain. When a man speaks what he does 



66 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

not believe, when his acts steadily belie his 
words, we may well refuse to hear him. Against 
foolish talk, random talk, talk that expresses no 
careful thought, we may also wisely protest. It 
is fair to demand that he who speaks shall have 
something to say. 

No one can deny that the gift of speech is 
easily and frequently abused. The best gifts 
are the most liable to abuse. But to disparage 
speech is to set at nought one of the crowning 
distinctions between man and the lower animals, 
to make light of the noblest faculty that God 
has given to men. And, after all this cant about 
silence, it remains true that speech furnishes the 
vehicle by which thought travels, the wings by 
which love flies. Is not the sword of the spirit 
" the word of God ? " " Talking ! " — says one, 
" it is the only force that moves the world. 
Voting changes no opinions — it only records 
them. It is talking and nothing else — the mere 
foolishness of preaching, that makes up the 
skirmishes and the battles of our crusades of 
politics and science and morals and religion/' 

Of what are our Congresses of natural and 
social science, our educational conventions, and 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 67 

boards of trade, made up, if not of talk? 
What is the work of the teacher, if it is not 
talking? And even in the household how large 
a part of the best training is accomplished 
through the agency of judicious and well-chosen 
words. Here, of course, more than almost any- 
where else, the words of the parent must be en- 
forced by his life ; yet there is need of line upon 
line and precept upon precept in order that the 
laws of good conduct may be impressed upon 
the memories of our children. 

Now the work of Christ in the world, which 
we as Christians are called to do, is done not by 
the neglect, but by the use of this instrument of 
speech. It is not all done by talking, as 1 have 
already tried to show, but the emphasis which is 
put upon preaching in the injunctions of Christ 
to his disciples, and in the whole of the New 
Testament, makes it plain that a very large part 
of it is done in this way. But preaching, in the 
New Testament sense of the word, is not al- 
ways the formal delivery of truth by an orator 
to a congregation ; it is any utterance, no matter 
how familiar or conversational, by which the 
truth of the Gospel is communicated. Two men 



68 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

are riding together along a desert road in 3 
wagon, and one of them is said to preach to 
the other. " Daily in the temple and in every 
house" the historian of the Acts tells us, the dis- 
ciples " ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus 
Christ. " I do not suppose that Philip, when he 
preached to the eunuch, or that the apostles 
when they preached from house to house in Je- 
rusalem, laid out their discourses with a firstly 
and a secondly and a thirdly, or that they raised 
their voices in a preaching tone, or that they 
held forth solemnly while their auditor or audi- 
tors listened silently. It was not always mon- 
ologue, when Christ and his apostles preached ; 
it was often dialogue. Talk as well as speech- 
making comes under the head of preaching. 
And indeed, the best kind of speech-making, as 
we are beginning to learn, is that which, by its 
natural and familiar style, most closely resem- 
bles talk. 

It is highly important, then, that the young 
Christian learn to talk well. That is an art 
which he is bound to cultivate, the art of ex- 
pression. Let him not be misled by the prat- 
ing against talk of a few garrulous people w T ho 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 69 

themselves want to make all the noise. The 
confession by the mouth of Jesus Christ as the 
Saviour, the testimony of the lips to the truth of 
his gospel, the utterance in words of the call to 
the heavenly life, are not matters of no conse- 
quence, nor are they duties that can be wholly 
done by the ministers and the deacons, or the 
college-taught people in the churches. "Let 
him that heareth " not only come but u say 
Come!" 

Paul gave thanks for the Corinthian Chris- 
tians, not for the ministers but for the people, 
that in everything they were enriched by Jesus 
Christ, in all utterance, as well as in all knowl- 
edge. It is not less a matter of congratulation 
in these days when Christians learn to use the 
gift of speech wisely and well. 

By the use of speech truth is imparted, but 
that is only one of the benefits that flow from it. 
By the use of speech our own ideas are cleared 
and sharpened. No man knows anything very 
well till he has tried to express it. Every school- 
master will testify that he has learned, more 
about the sciences in which he gives instruction 
by teaching them to others than by studying 



JO THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

them for himself. The best way to make a 
thing plain to your own mind is to explain it to 
somebody else. Action and reaction are equal, 
and therefore expression is balanced by impres- 
sion. In all mental commerce it is better to 
give than to receive, because one gains in giving 
more than in receiving. The very effort to put 
your thought about religious truth and the re- 
ligious life into intelligible words must, then, 
have the effect to strengthen your possession of 
that truth and your hold upon that life. 

Moreover your ideas will be likely to under- 
go revision if you speak them out. Not unlike- 
ly some of them are wrong. When you utter 
them in conversation, the questions with which 
they may be met and the doubts that may be 
expressed about them will perhaps result in cor- 
recting them. Talking implies listening. He 
who talks well receives as well as imparts. He 
may not gain so much from what is said to him 
as from what he himself expresses ; but if he is 
candid and modest he can hardly help learning 
something in every conversation. And if he is 
able to express his own thoughts clearly, those 
who hear will almost surely be stimulated to re- 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 71 

plies that will throw light upon the subject of 
which he speaks. " He that watereth shall be 
watered also himself. ,, Not onlv correction of 
error, but also mental and spiritual enlargement 
and inspiration are to be gained in conversation. 

As a means of culture, then, and also as a 
means of usefulness, the Christian is bo.und to 
exercise his gift of speech. A large part of the 
good that we receive will come through talk ; 
much of the good that we do will be done through 
talk. Much of it, I say; not all of it, not most 
of it, but much of it. We have a right to be 
impatient with those people who seem to think 
that talk is the panacea for all the ills of life, that 
there is no other kind of Christian work except 
speech-making ; but when we refuse to accept 
these extravagant notions, we need not deny that 
speech is one of the weightiest instruments in 
the propagation of truth; we need not neglect 
the duty of keeping this instrument in order for 
effective service. 

In order that one may talk usefully, it is 
highly important that one should know some- 
thing. The graces of speech are barren when 
divorced from the gifts of knowledge. Mere 



72 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

elegances of diction are of small account ; a fault- 
less pronunciation and an absolute accuracy of 
grammatical construction only make the speech 
that comes from an empty head sound all the 
more hollow. If the speaker only know some- 
thing ; if by his study of the Word, and of him- 
self, and of nature and of society, and of God's 
providential order, he have learned something of 
the nature of the Redeemer's kingdom, some- 
thing of those deep mysteries that unfold them- 
selves only to the humble and thoughtful student 
of divine truth, then, no matter though his sen- 
tences may be rudely constructed, and his words 
barbarously pronounced, we may sit at his feet 
as delighted and profited listeners. I do not 
mean that there is any merit in bad grammar, 
— quite the contrary ; but the defect is one that 
can far more easily be borne than a lack of un- 
derstanding, 

In order that we may be qualified to talk 
well in public or in private upon religious 
subjects, the study of good books is a great 
help, and none of us can afford to neglect 
it. Some underwise people, ministers even, 
affect to despise the knowledge that comes 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 73 

through books, and pretend to draw all their 
inspirations from the incidents and associations 
of common life ; but a mere horse-car or ferry- 
boat culture is not apt to be very exalted, and 
the sermons of the preacher who never reads are 
likely to be more sensational than stimulating. 
What the minister needs is needed also, in some 
less degree, by every layman who wants to be 
useful. The best minds of the ages have left for 
us their legacies of priceless wisdom in the books 
that they have written ; guidance and comfort 
are in the words that hold the results of their 
experience, and we are not wise if we refuse the 
counsel and support bequeathed to us. I find 
a few friends wherever I go, whose wide experi- 
ence and clear insight and commanding convic- 
tions make me a large debtor whenever I talk 
with them ; but in my study any day I can sit 
down with Pascal, or with Coleridge, or with 
Dr. Arnold, or with Robertson, or with Bush- 
nell ; I can have him all to myself, in silence ; 
I can commune with him more perfectly and 
with larger gains of wisdom and knowledge than 
I could hope to receive in any oral intercourse 
with any man, and when the interview is ended, 

4 



74 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

I feel that I have been lifted on the wings of 
a mighty spirit up to heights where the out- 
look is wider than that of my daily path in life, 
and the air is purer than that which I breathe in 
the market-place. Such a season of communion 
with a great soul always gives me something to 
think about, and something to talk about. I do 
not despise the light that I find on lowly ways ; 
the stimulus and help that come to me in con- 
versations with those who have written no books, 
but whose lives are full of the fruits of a sweet 
and sincere piety ; one needs both kinds of 
knowledge, that which is gained from books and 
that which is gained in daily life ; intercourse 
with common people and with -uncommon peo- 
ple. I only desire to insist that for all of us who 
desire to qualify ourselves to be useful, this 
means of improvement is open ; and that while, 
on account of the burden of daily cares, many 
are not able to read as much as they would like 
to read, there are yet odd moments in the busi- 
est lives that can be put to good use in this way. 
Thus by our communion with the wise and the 
good, we may get wisdom and understanding 
that shall qualify us to speak acceptable words, 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 75 

when we sit in the house, when we walk by the 
way, and when we stand up in the assembly of 
worshippers to bear witness of the truth. 

I have not spoken of the study of the Bible, 
as a means whereby we may prepare ourselves 
to talk of things divine, because I desire to de- 
vote part of another chapter to the uses of this 
holy Book. But it is evident* that all that has 
been said concerning the value of good books 
applies with greatly added force to the Bible, 
which is the best of books. None of us can ex- 
pect to speak wisely or convincingly of things 
divine if we neglect the sacred oracles. 

It is not, however, wholly by the reading of 
good books, not even by the study of the Bible, 
that we perfect ourselves in the Christian art of 
talking. We must think, as well as read. We 
must meditate on what we read, and what we 
hear, and what we see. We must try to apply 
these truths of religion to life as we witness it, 
and as we are living it ; to work out the prob- 
lems of grace in our daily experience, and obser- 
vation. There is time for most of us to do a 
good deal of honest thinking about religious 
truth. Many of those who cannot read much 



j6 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

have plenty of time to think. And they who 
read a little and think much are often wiser than 
they who read much and thiiik but little. What 
we all need, in order to qualify us to speak un- 
derstandingly and forcibly about these themes, 
is daily meditation upon them. The reason 
why many of us cannot speak on religious sub- 
jects, or can only speak drily and clumsily, is 
that we do not think much about them. We 
should not find it easy to talk about politics if 
we thought no more about politics than we do 
about religion. We should not find it hard to 
talk about religion if we thought as much about 
religion as we do about politics. 

Add to meditation practice. He who lives 
well can generally talk well. Even if he does 
not say much, what he does say means a great 
deal. The reduction of these truths of religion 
to the terms of daily life puts us into such 
thorough possession of them that when we 
speak our words like our Master's in some 
smaller measure are spirit and life ; and we are 
listened to as those having authority and not as 
the scribes. 

When you have thus by study, by medita- 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. J? 

tion, by consistent practice, got something to 
say and a right to say it, then open your mouth 
and speak. You need not wait until you have 
read all the books, or until you have thought 
over all possible subjects of reflection, or until 
you have become perfect in your Christian lives ; 
but while you study, while you think, while you 
faithfully live, give utterance to the thought 
that is in you. Talk about religion. Make it a 
common and a familiar topic. Don't be afraid to 
talk about it. You who fear the Lord speak often 
one to another! Do not lecture one another; 
do not preach to one another ; but converse 
about the religious life, as you are endeavoring 
to live it ; about your own experiences in apply- 
ing the truth of the New Testament to your 
daily conduct ; about your successes and your 
failures, your doubts and your encouragements, 
your hopes and your fears. Compare notes. 
There will be some things in your experience of 
which you will not desire to speak ; of which you 
will have no right to speak. There are bounds 
of reticence that must not be transgressed. 
There are inner struggles through which we 
must pass with no counsel and no sympathy 



78 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

save that of him who in Gethsemane agonized 
for our deliverance. But of many phases of 
our Christian life we may freely speak to our 
Christian friends, and our communion with them 
may be helpful to them as well as to ourselves. 
Do not be afraid to talk about religion with 
those who are not Christians. It is not neces- 
sary, however, for you to lecture them. It is 
not best to go at them in a formal, official sort 
of way, as if you had a duty to discharge, and 
felt bound to do it, whether they liked it or not. 
You can converse on the subject of religion 
with a man without " giving him a talking to." 
That is what few of us enjoy, be the subject 
what it may. When you assume by your air 
and tone that you are in some sense superior to 
the person with whom you are conversing, — 
that you a saint, have come to him a sinner, to 
reclaim him from the error of his w T ays, you 
immediately put him into the attitude of resist- 
ance. Of course you do not feel any such supe- 
riority, and your method of approach should 
not convey such an impression. Talk with him, 
not to him. Draw him out. Get him to tell 
you what his thoughts of the religious life are, 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 79 

(for all of our neighbors have thoughts about 
it,) and what his purposes and experiments have 
been in trying to live religiously, (for there are 
very few who have not at some time in their 
lives tried to be Christians.) Perhaps you can 
help him out of his difficulties ; if you cannot 
you may be the means of putting him into com- 
munication with some one who can. At any 
rate you can show your interest in him, and 
your desire to do him good, and you can make 
him see that you have no wish to dictate to 
him, or to exalt yourself above him. 

You must not, however, be obtrusive. Do 
not force this kind of conversation at unseemly 
times, and in rude ways. 

When you talk, talk naturally. You require 
ho holy tones, and no theologic phrases. There 
is no call for cant. Be cheerful about it. Don't 
give any color to the notion that religion is a 
gloomy subject ; that it can never be mentioned 
without bringing a shadow upon the face and a 
drone into the voice. Let your talk be talk, 
not snuffling, nor wailing, nor maundering. And 
if with a hearty good will, and a cheerful confi- 
dence in the truth of what you are saying, you 



80 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

thus beside all waters sow the seeds of truth 
divine, doubtless you shall come again with re- 
joicing bringing your sheaves with you. 

But there is need, sometimes, of talk in pub- 
lic places, in prayer and conference meetings, 
and in other public meetings for religious pur- 
poses. If these social religious meetings could 
be made less formal and more social, so that 
the exercises should more resemble a familiar 
but decorous conversation, and be less like a 
series of set speeches, the result, I am sure, 
would in many cases be beneficial. If each per- 
son, male or female, would feel free without 
rising to put, in a sentence or two pertinent to 
the theme or the occasion, our conferences would 
often be greatly enriched. Often, the substance 
of what one has to say is summed up in one or 
two sentences. Amplification only weakens it. 
Tersely put it sticks in the memory and quick- 
ens the feeling. If we could have more of these 
sententious and informal utterances our meet- 
ings would be greatly improved, and many who 
now shrink from participating in them might do 
so with profit to themselves and to the rest 
of us. 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 8 1 

But even such short sayings must have 
thought in them and life behind them. Some 
preparation is necessary, even for this unpreten- 
tious service. And this preparation should be 
carefully made. None of us should wait until 
the meeting, and then expect a sudden inspira- 
tion. Beaten oil in the sanctuary makes the 
flame burn brightly ; and it matters not whether 
the candlestick be set in the pulpit or in the 
prayer-room. I believe in inspirations, most 
heartily ; but I believe that they come to those 
who work, not to those who shirk. When I 
have been lazy in my preparation for the pulpit, 
then I cannot be confident that the Lord will k 
do my work for me ; but when I have been dili- 
gent in making ready for the service I am always 
sure that he will stand by me and help me to 
preach his word. And the same rule must, I 
am sure, hold good of those who speak in the 
prayer-meetings. We do not need to prepare 
set speeches — far from that ; but we do need to 
be thinking during the week of the subject of 
which we will speak ; of the truth to which we 
will bear witness ; and we ought to be in readi- 
ness to utter it clearly and promptly. If we 
4* 



82 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

can condense it into a very few words, so much 
the better. 

It is not, however, always possible to reduce 
what we have to say to a sentence. Sometimes 
several sentences will be required to convey our 
thought. And the power to stand on his feet 
and utter these sentences with distinctness is one 
that every young Christian ought to cultivate. 
The gifts of the orator are not for all, but the 
ability to express, with clearness and simplicity, 
any truth that we may happen to know, may be 
acquired by all of us. It is harder for some than 
for others to gain this power, but it is not be- 
yond the reach of any. Some are naturally dif- 
fident ; but repeated and persistent and deter- 
mined effort, with faith in God's help, will over- 
come this diffidence. First be sure that you 
have something to say, and that you know what 
that something is; then arise and say it. If 
what you are trying to say is the truth, if you 
have verified it in your experience, then it is a 
message which God has given you, and no doubt 
he will help you to utter it. Believe that he 
will. Expect his spirit to speak through you, 
and be not dismayed if you seem to fail ; for 



THE CHRISTIAN AS A WITNESS. 83 

the broken utterances of his feeblest children 
are often by his convincing power applied to 
the consciences of those who hear. Even 
though you may succeed but imperfectly in 
giving utterance to your thought, try it again, 
and keep trying until your timidity disappears, 
and the service becomes a joy. Make ready, 
every time, the word that you will utter, pray 
every time, that God will help you to utter it ; 
expect always his presence and his sustaining 
grace and you will gain, at length, this excellent 
gift of clear and helpful speech. 



V. 

THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 

I ONCE heard a man, who was reputed to be 
a trickster in trade, say in a prayer meeting, that 
what we wanted most was more religion in our 
business. Coming from such a man I confess 
that the utterance somewhat puzzled me. Two 
possible explanations suggested themselves. 
One was that the speaker was unjustly accused of 
dishonesty — that he was not the untruthful and 
scheming fellow that common rumor made him 
out to be. That was the most charitable, and I 
would fain hope, the most credible theory. It 
might be, however, that by carrying our religion 
into our business this man meant talking religion 
in business hours and in business places, rather 
than practicing it in the transactions of trade. 
It might be that his idea of mixing religion with 
business was conversing with your customers 
over the counter in a confidential manner about 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 85 

their souls ; keeping the Bible in the money- 
drawer, and reading a verse or two from it now 
and then, for your own edification or for the 
benefit of persons happening in ; putting a little 
Scripture into an advertisement, or slipping a 
tract into a parcel of goods, or printing a text 
upon the envelope in which you send out your 
trade circulars. Some such methods as these 
might have been in his mind when he said that 
we wanted more religion in our business. His 
conscience might have reproved him for not re- 
sorting to these evangelistic devices more fre- 
quently in connection with his trade, while it did 
not at all trouble him on account of any lies that 
he might have told, or any sharp tricks that he 
might have played upon his customers. 

It is a melancholy fact that there are a good 
many people in our churches whose conscience 
is of just this quality. It is punctilious about 
deeds of piety, it is careless about works of 
righteousness. I do not say that such people 
are never Christians ; sometimes they are, no 
doubt ; they really mean to do right, and their 
failure is due to an imperfect education more 
than to conscious and intentional hypocrisy. 



86 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

Their method of mixing business with religion 
will however, scarcely approve itself to any well 
instructed conscience. 

I do not say that a business man should 
never seize upon the opportunities that come to 
him in business intercourse of speaking on the 
subject of personal religion. Such occasions 
will present themselves, and he who is ready to 
do good to all men as he has opportunity will 
not neglect them. Ordinary common sense will 
however, suggest one or two maxims that may 
well be observed by those who undertake to do 
good in this way. The first is that the merchant 
or clerk who talks religion to a customer, must 
be sure that the customer has entire confidence 
in his integrity as a man of business. The word 
of exhortation is not likely to be mixed with 
faith in them that hear it, if it is spoken by the 
lips of one to whom suspicions of sharp practice 
have somehow attached themselves. 

The second is, that the imputation of making 
gain of godliness ought not to be incurred. If 
our zeal for religion has the appearance of being 
a device to get the favor of a certain class of cus- 
tomers, it will do more harm than good. 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 8/ 

On the whole, therefore, while I do not doubt 
that it may sometimes be the duty of the busi- 
ness man to use the intercourse between himself 
and his customers for evangelistic purposes, it 
seems to me that there are other ways in which 
a Christian man may more successfully introduce 
his religion into his business. It is not so much 
by making the store or the office or the shop a 
preaching place, as by making it a practicing 
place, that he most conclusively proves the 
gospel true. If in all his transactions the fact 
appears that his conduct is guided by strict 
integrity, his religion will get abundant honor. 

The Christian in business is, then, first of all, 
an upright man. He is one on whose word all 
his neighbors unhesitatingly depend ; he is one 
who is never known to take an unfair advantage 
in a bargain ; he is one who " sweareth to his 
own hurt and changeth not." The Christian 
man of whom this can be said wins for his Mas- 
ter a meed of respect that few other servants 
have the power to gain. I know of no man 
who wields a more powerful influence than the 
business man who shows that his religion keeps 
him scrupulously honest. 



88 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

The young Christian who has devoted his 
life to business need not then imagine that he 
has chosen a calling in which the opportunities 
of usefulness are limited. There is no more fruit- 
ful service than that to which the man is called 
who practices religion in the midst of the temp- 
tations of trade. 

The first and most conspicuous of the traits 
by which the Christian in business will shine 
forth as a light is truthfulness. This is indeed, 
the fundamental virtue. In every system of 
morals, in every estimate of character, we must 
put truth first. Without veracity and the con- 
fidence which rests upon it, society cannot exist. 
That is the fair bond by which the social order 
is compacted. " Wherefore putting away lying, 
speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we 
are members one of another." Every lie that is 
told disturbs the security of the neighborhood, 
and weakens the foundations of the state. Every 
lie that is told hurts not only the man that tells 
it, and the man that is deceived by it, but ako 
the whole community ; for it helps to impair the 
confidence of men in one another; and it is upon 
this basis of confidence that our civilization rests. 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 89 

Truthfulness, I say, is the virtue to be first 
cultivated not only by the merchant, but by the 
laborer, the mechanic, the professional man. 
Even the journalist with all his shining traits can 
well afford to covet this best gift. The professor 
of theology, the minister of the gospel, who dis- 
sembles or prevaricates in the execution of his 
trust, who hides the truth that he thinks, and 
teaches a doctrine that he does not believe ; 
whose words flow on in the channels of tradition, 
while his convictions have made for themselves 
another channel out of sight, is surely doing all 
he can to undermine the faith of men not only 
in the doctrine that he teaches but in truth 
itself. Such insincerity will out. It cannot be 
hid. And when one who stands to unfold the 
divine oracles is found to be paltering with words 
in a double sense, or teaching orthodoxy with 
his lips while his thought is far from it, a terrible 
blow is dealt at the very foundations of faith in 
the hearts of men. It is not necessary that every 
crude questioning, every undigested speculation 
of the religious teacher should be spoken forth ; 
but when, after fair investigation, he reaches any 
conclusion respecting religious truth, it is his 



90 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

duty to utter it, even though it may put him out 
of sympathy with those to whom he ministers. 
" Between us be truth," always and by all means. 
The people may be glad to have their minister 
agree with them, but they will not, it is to be 
hoped, be so base as to demand that he should 
pretend to agree with them when he does not. 
They will not regard the teacher who insincerely 
speaks their thought as a better man than the 
one who sincerely speaks his own. They will not 
make it perilous for the man to be sincere, by 
banishing from their presence all who do not 
voice their convictions. Disagreement is to every 
honest seeker after truth an evil infinitely less to 
be dreaded than deceit. 

I have dwelt upon the need of truth between 
the teacher and the taught, because the depart- 
ment is one concerning which I have a right to 
speak. But I cannot see why the obligation of 
sincerity does not rest alike upon all men in all 
callings. Falsehood is the fundamental evil. 
The Devil is the father of lies. His kingdom 
rests upon deceit. And it will never be over- 
thrown till all Christians put away lying utterly, 
and speak every man truth with his neighbor. 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 91 

Veracity is no more necessary in commercial 
life than in domestic life or social life, but it is 
perhaps more difficult to practice the virtue in 
trade than anywhere else. There are so many 
motives to lie, there are so many ways of lying, 
the atmosphere of the market is so charged with 
falsehood, that it is often very hard to tell the 
exact truth. The usages and traditions of trade 
in many quarters are such that one who under- 
takes to be truthful will find himself rowing right 
against the current. Not seldom the question 
of livelihood will be raised if he resists the bad 
practice. 

A young man in this city entered a dry goods 
store (not now open, I am happy to say) in which 
a bankrupt stock was being disposed of. But 
new goods were constantly added to the bank- 
rupt stock, and one of the tricks of the establish- 
ment was this. The new goods were all marked 
twice, a very high price was put upon the tag 
with ink ; then that was marked out with pencil, 
and a much lower figure was written underneath. 
The customer was shown this tag by the clerk 
who was required to say, " Here ! you can see 
what Mr. So and So was selling these goods for 



92 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

and what a reduction we have made." The 
young man did not think this method of doing 
business exactly honorable, but I am sorry to 
say that he had not the moral courage to refuse 
to do it. It takes some moral courage to do just 
right always in hard times like these, when situa- 
tions are not plenty, and the prospect of long 
idleness, if not of starvation, opens before every 
man who loses his place. Nevertheless, the case 
is very plain. No man can afford to lie. That, 
in the long run, is the most expensive and the 
most ruinous of all indulgences. And especially 
is the Christian restrained by his vows of allegi- 
ance to Him who is the Truth, from such base- 
ness. It takes some moral courage to tell the 
truth, but I should think that it would require 
some immoral courage in a Christian man to lie, 
right before God and the angel that is writing in 
the book of life ; right under the sad reproving 
look of Him who came to bear witness to the 
truth, and who cannot, surely, witness without 
pain the falsehoods of his disciples. 

No, my friend, it will not do to lie. The 
employer who requires it of you is a man whom 
you cannot afford to work for. Shake off the 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 93 

dust of your feet for a testimony against him 
and go. Trust in the Lord and do right and 
you will be better off, even in this world, than if 
you trust in the devil and do wrong. But there 
is no conceivable privation or suffering that the 
Christian man will not gladly encounter sooner 
than be guilty of untruth. 

Let this law of truthfulness be your guide in 
all your business life, whether you are principal 
or agent, merchant or clerk. Don't suppose 
that you are absolved from blame when you 
employ another to do wrong or when you are 
employed by another to do wrong. If you con- 
sent to it, you are responsible for it. Never 
misrepresent the quality of what you are selling, 
never be silent if you know that one with whom 
you are dealing is deceived to his detriment. 
If you know that the article appears to him to 
be what it is not, undeceive him. If the label 
on the goods lies, whether as to quantity or 
quality, (and most labels do) expose the false- 
hood before the goods pass from your hands. 
Have no part nor lot in the abominable trick- 
eries by which the trade of the world is infested. 
Do your utmost to expose them, to prevent 



94 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

them, to make them disgraceful and unprofita 
ble. If as a Christian man you can succeed in 
raising, though it be only in a small degree, the 
standard of truthfulness among the business men 
of the community in which you live, in making 
veracity more honorable and deceit more despi- 
cable, you will be helping mightily to build up 
the kingdom of your Redeemer in the world, 

Closely connected with this virtue of truth- 
fulness is the virtue of honesty. The honest 
man must be truthful ; the truthful man can 
hardly be dishonest. He who recognizes and 
respects his neighbor's right to the truth is not 
likely to trespass against any other of his neigh- 
bor's rights. It is not safe for a man to steal 
who will not lie ; he is sure to be caught -at it. 
A thief who was not also a liar would be a moral 
curiosity. If the foundation of character be 
laid in truthfulness, there is therefore no doubt 
but that the life that is built upon it will be an 
honest life ; nevertheless, it is well for the young 
Christian to remember that his religion does 
imply not only sincerity of speech, but careful- 
ness to respect other people's rights of property. 
In a good many small things it is the way of the 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 9$ 

world to be dishonest ; but the Christian hears 
his Master saying: "He that is unjust in the 
least, is unjust also in much." ,One cannot be 
too scrupulous in such matters. 

The private secretary of the late Chief Jus- 
tice Chase told me that during the whole of his 
official life at Columbus as Governor of Ohio he 
always kept a separate stock of stationery and 
stamps, for his own private correspondence, and 
never used the supply furnished him by the 
State except for official business. It was a small 
matter but it indicated the integrity of the man, 
which in all the earlier and better part of his life 
was so illustrious, and which, if toward the close 
of his life it seemed to be somewhat dimmed, 
only faded with the waning of his mental power. 
Judge Chased practice was none too strict. In a 
public officer it seems almost incredible, but 
whether a man be dealing with the property of 
the State or with the property of an individual, 
he can be none too scrupulous about taking that 
which does not belong to him. Even the Gold- 
en Rule will not serve us here. For if we are 
so careless or so generous as not to be disturbed 
when others make free with our possessions, that 



96 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

will not justify us in making free with the pos- 
sessions of others. I had a neighbor once, — a 
most obliging man, always ready to do me a 
favor, and equally ready to help himself without 
asking to anything that belonged to me. I 
confess that he was one of the most difficult 
neighbors to deal with that I ever had. I did 
not want to warn him off, peremptorily, from 
my premises ; but it was very aggravating to see 
how little respect he had for my rights as a pro- 
prietor ; how utterly confused were his notions 
of mine and thine. This lack of precision in 
defining and respecting property rights very 
often leads to gross dishonesty. 

Promptness in meeting his engagements is 
another distinguishing mark of the Christian in 
business. Truthfulness underlies this virtue 
also ; it is one of the forms in which truthful- 
ness is exhibited. In these days it is sometimes 
hard for the best of us to be punctual in keeping 
our promises. " We are members one of an- 
other ; " and the failure of one neighbor to 
keep his engagement with me, may make it im- 
possible for me to keep my engagement with 
another neighbor. I suppose that we must all 



THE CHRISTIAN. IN BUSINESS. 97 

be patient ; that is one way in which, in these 
times, we are to bear one another's burdens. 
But the Christian man will be very careful not 
to enter into any engagement which he does not 
see his way clear to fulfil. He will not recklessly 
take upon himself obligations which he has no 
visible means of discharging. He will not let 
his imagination or his hopefulness delude him 
into making promises which he cannot perform. 

Just here, I think, some Christian men who 
mean to be honest make deplorable mistakes 
and bring great scandal upon the church. They 
are altogether too sanguine. They take coun- 
sel in their business ventures of their hopes 
rather than of experience and judgment. And 
thus they take upon themselves obligations 
which they never can meet and drag others 
along with them into loss and suffering. Now 
it is well to be hopeful, but it is not well to be 
visionary ; and the Christian is bound to culti- 
vate a sound mind, a sober judgment in all 
these matters, and to be very cautious how he 
ventures upon any undertaking whose success is 
not reasonably certain. 

Every Christian, whether engaged in com- 
5 



98 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

mercial pursuits or not, ought to be sure that 
he knows what his income is, and ought to be 
careful that his expenditures do not exceed it, 
unless he has a surplus on which he can draw. 
He who, Avith nothing laid by, is spending more 
than he is earning, is living at somebody else's 
expense. This may sometimes be necessary, 
but when it is done there ought to be a fair un- 
derstanding. Those who are thus assisting us 
ought to know just what they are doing ; then, 
if they are able and willing to continue the 
assistance, and we are willing to accept it, no- 
body will have any complaints to make. 

Fidelity to trusts is another form in which 
Christianity displays itself in business. The 
property of others is sometimes committed to 
our care. It then becomes our duty to deal with 
it much more carefully than if it were our own, 
to refrain especially from any use of it which 
the owner himself would not approve. We have 
no right to employ it in any private specula- 
tions. We have no right to use it unless there is 
a distinct understanding to that effect. Money 
for charitable purposes or money belonging to 
social organizations, that comes into your hands 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 99 

ought to be kept sacredly separate from your 
personal and private funds. It is not right to 
use it, trusting that you will be able to replace it. 
No matter how fair the prospect may be of mak- 
ing this restoration, you cannot be sure of any- 
thing in the future, and the only safe way is not 
to touch a penny of it. 

The appropriation of trust funds is a crime 
which has been increasing in frequency of late. 
Many shocking instances of this kind of infidel- 
ity on the part of professing Christians have 
come to light. The treasurer of one of our 
leading benevolent societies was accustomed 
not long ago to receive funds entrusted to him 
for investment. Several poor widows put their 
little all into his hands, and some of the mis- 
sionaries of the American Board, who had 
saved a little money, sent it to him to be safely 
placed. 

Instead of putting it into good securities he 
used it to set up a dissolute son of his in business 
at the West, and every dollar of it was sunk. 
One good and well-known missionary lost the 
small savings of a life-time by this infidelity. 

Now between an act like this and that of the 



IOO THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

burglar who blows open your safe with nitro- 
glycerine and runs away with your bonds de- 
posited there, I confess the burglar's operation 
seems to me a good deal more respectable. 
Such a reckless and irresponsible use of trust 
funds is one of the gravest of crimes. Yet I 
suppose that this man had accustomed himself 
to taking other people's money for his own use 
or for speculation and replacing it afterw r ard, till 
he had come to feel that it was a perfectly legiti- 
mate transaction. The ethics of financial trust 
need to be revised and enforced with all solem- 
nity upon every man who stands in this relation. 
" It is required in stewards that a man be found 
faithful," that he keep, sacredly, that which 
is entrusted to him, and that he refrain from 
using it for private or speculative purposes. 

Closely connected with this is the question 
whether it is the duty of a bank officer to defend 
with his life the property entrusted to him. I 
cannot doubt that it is. At any rate, the bank 
officer has no right, I am sure, to assist in rob- 
bing the bank. He had better sacrifice his life 
than be a thief or the partner of thieves. The 
soldier guarding the arsenal who should be cap- 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. 101 

tured and threatened with death if he would not 
open to the enemy the building he was set to 
guard and aid them in pillaging it, would be 
execrated if he should save his life by such an 
act of baseness. I see not why the honor of 
a bank officer ought not to be as sacred as the 
honor of a soldier. 

Finally, the Christian in business will prove 
that his religion is genuine by making his busi- 
ness always subordinate and tributary to his 
religion. He will not feel that business is the 
principal thing ; he will not act as if he thought 
that the gains of trade are of more consequence 
than the treasures laid up in heaven. If " a 
Christian in business," be the title that describes 
him, the emphasis will rest on " Christian," 
rather than on " business." He will seek first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, be- 
lieving that all needful things will be added after 
that. " Not slothful in business," says Paul ; 
but that is a measured phrase, a negative phrase ; 
" fervent in spirit serving the Lord ; " that is an 
energetic phrase, a positive phrase. There is no 
testimony by which the Christian business man 
can more strongly support the faith which he has 



102 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

professed, than by showing to all those with 
whom he deals that the concerns of religion are 
dearer to him than those of traffic ; that he is 
more ready to forego a business advantage than 
a Christian duty. And not only by keeping 
business under, and giving religion the supreme 
place in his life will he win honor for his Master, 
but also and most effectively by using his busi- 
ness benevolently, by conducting it not solely 
with an eye to personal aggrandizement, but also 
as a means of serving others. We are all able 
to see in a time of depression like the present, 
how great is the service that the man renders to 
his neighbors who is able to give them employ- 
ment, by which they may gain a livelihood. I 
know some good Christian gentlemen who have 
engaged in business of late for this reason, 
because they desired to provide work for those 
who were idle. It is a most excellent and Chris- 
tian thing to do, and I trust this method of 
doing good will become more and more popular. 
When Christian business men generally begin to 
comprehend this truth, that the enterprises in 
which they are engaged may be and ought to be 
carried on with benevolent thoughts ; that the 



THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS. IO3 

faculty of organizing business is one of the 
talents of which a Christian use must be made ; 
that the people in their employ are not their 
foes nor their menials, but their brethren beloved, 
in whose welfare they have a special interest, for 
whose good in all things, temporal and spiritual, 
they are especially to care, the kingdoms of this 
world will speedily become the kingdoms of 
Jehovah and of his Christ. This realm of mam- 
mon, with its selfish maxims and its sordid ten- 
dencies and its fierce competitions, is now the 
stronghold of the world's evil, and the only force 
that can successfully lay siege to it and take it 
for Christ is a consecrated army of Christian 
business men. 



VI. 

THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. 

The Christian is a member of society. Not 
only does he belong to that larger society which 
constitutes the state, but also to that smaller 
community which is gathered in the city or the 
village or the rural district where he dwells. This 
is not a close corporation, into which none are 
admitted save by the vote of those already be- 
longing; it is not even a body politic, limiting 
by rules more or less wise the rights of citizen- 
ship : it is a natural organism into which every 
human being is born; and the duties that per- 
tain to it are no more optional than are our 
duties to God. The individual has no more 
power of determining whether or not he will be 
a member of society than the hand has of deter- 
mining whether or not it will be a member of the 
body. The hermit is not absolved from social 
obligations ; he may forswear them, but he cannot 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. 105 

escape them no matter how deep the seclusion 
into which he may be plunged. 

It is not left with any one to choose 
whether he will be a member of society or not. 
Is the drop requested to choose whether it 
will be a part of the river, or the twig to make up 
its mind whether it will belong to the tree? 
Here you are in society ; and you are of it, as 
well as in it; into its relations and its obligations 
you were born and you will not escape from 
them until you die nor even then. 

What then is the nature of the debt which 
the Christian owes to society ? Simply and 
comprehensively, it is the debt of love : " As we 
have opportunity therefore, let us do good to 
all men." Our best opportunities of doing good 
are those which grow out of our relations to the 
people who live in our own immediate neighbor- 
hood. To secure their welfare, to promote their 
happiness, to improve, in all laudable ways, the 
conditions of their life — this is our duty to them. 
The community in which we live has interests 
which we ought to consider and help in advan- 
cing. Of course its religious interests are para- 
mount, and the Christian will make these his 

5* 



106 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

peculiar care. But there are other things that 
he is bound to care for. If all his neighbors 
were converted, and were walking in the fear of 
the Lord, his duties to society would not be 
ended ; they would be only just begun. A great 
many things can be done for the good of the 
saints that are in the earth ; to improve their 
circumstances and to cheer and brighten their 
lives. And Paul says that we are to do good 
not only to the saints but to all men as we have 
opportunity. 

How, then, is the Christian to discharge this 
debt of love that he owes to the society in which 
he lives? After he has performed his religious 
duties in what other ways can he do good to his 
neighbors ? 

In the first place he ought to do all that he 
can to promote the health of the neighborhood 
in which he lives. Health is of all things tem- 
poral the chief good ; life is a burden without it 
and earthly possessions and gains are of small 
account when it is wanting. The apostle prayed 
for the well-beloved Gaius that he might prosper 
and be in health, even as his soul prospered. 
You may well pray and labor, too, for those 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. 107 

whose souls are prosperous that their bodies 
may be sound. It is not true that all moral 
evil has its source in physical disease, but it is 
true that a considerable part of the sin as well 
as of the suffering of this world is directly con- 
nected with morbid bodily conditions. Who- 
ever helps, therefore, to improve the general 
health of the neighborhood, — to banish malaria, 
to guard against infection, to provide good drain- 
age and good water, to make all the surround- 
ings wholesome and salubrious, is doing part of 
his duty as a Christian in society. 

In the second place the Christian is bound 
to do what he can toward improving the morals 
of the neighborhood in which he lives. He 
does this first and most effectively by himself 
obeying the moral law ; by speaking truth and 
doing justice and by keeping himself pure from 
the pollutions of vice. But he must also bear 
witness against the evil as it appears in the com- 
munity, and do his utmost to create a public 
sentiment by which it shall be exterminated. 
As he meets his neighbors day by day, he will 
stir up their pure minds to abhor the wrong, and 
to make war upon it. And when the conflict 



108 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

comes, as it often does come, between vice and 
virtue in the community ; when a determined 
and organized effort is made to check the rava- 
ges of wickedness, then he will be ready to fight 
as well as talk ; to take risks and endure hard- 
ships if need be in the service of social virtue. 
He is a very poor sort of Christian who is not 
outspoken and aggressive in his championship 
of morality, and in his hostility to disorder and 
corruption. " Ye that fear the Lord hate evil. ,, 
The Christian is bound to cultivate hatred of 
evil as well as love of goodness and to exercise 
this grace by grappling with the evil, as it in- 
trenches itself in society, and makes war upon 
the peace and welfare of his neighbors. 

Again, the Christian in society will seek to 
promote intelligence. Knowledge is a gift that 
he will covet for himself, and that he will be 
glad to see conferred upon his neighbors. He 
will be deeply concerned for the interests of a 
true and generous culture in the community in 
which he lives. He will desire that it may be 
an enlightened community. He knows that ig- 
norance is the parent of superstition, of jealousy, 
of all unkindness. He knows that every truth 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. IO9 

is God's truth ; that every true word is God's 
word ; and he believes that the entrance of 
God's word giveth light, that it giveth under- 
standing to the simple. Therefore he seeks to 
let light into all dark places, and all clouded 
minds ; and does whatever he can to increase the 
brightness of the beam that shines from science, 
or from history, or from philosophy or from lit- 
erature, into the daily life of the people among 
whom he dwells. There are many things that 
we can do as individuals or by voluntary associ- 
ations to promote culture in the community. We 
can improve our own minds, for one thing, by 
reading and study, so that our conversation 
may be stimulating and helpful to others. If 
we would furnish ourselves with something to 
talk about, sp that when the weather and the 
hard times and the election news are exhausted 
as topics of conversation we need not resort to 
gossip, but might be able to impart something 
really instructive and enlightening, we could do 
a valuable missionary work in a quiet way, on 
behalf of culture. " To do good and to com- 
municate forget not," says an apostle, " for with 
such sacrifices God is well pleased." " To com- 



IIO THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

municate " what? Charity, no doubt, where 
charity is needed ; sympathy when sympathy is 
called for ; and always thoughts, wise thoughts, 
high thoughts ; truths that kindle the better 
life within ; that strengthen the soul's hope and 
widen its horizon. 

Then there are numberless ways in which 
we may aid in spreading knowledge among our 
neighbors, and in quickening their thirst for it. 
By encouraging the dissemination of a pure lit- 
erature, by helping to establish libraries and 
reading rooms, by joining in the patronage of 
useful lectures, by forming circles for reading 
and study, so that the leisure hours may be 
given to the enriching of the mind rather than 
to its impoverishment, as they so often are, — by 
all such methods we may prove ourselves friends 
of knowledge, and worthy laborers in that fruit- 
ful field where -light is sown for righteousness. 
In such ways and in every way the Christians of 
the community ought to be known as the apos- 
tles of true culture, as children of the light. 

Beauty as well as truth claims the counte- 
nance of the Christian in society. God has 
made everything beautiful in its season. God 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. Ill 

loves beauty. It is one of the divine attributes. 
And we who are his children will honor him if 
we do what we can to fill the homes and the 
hearts of the people among whom we live with 
the beauty that helps in some degree to reveal 
God to them. 

It is also a Christian duty to promote 
acquaintance and sociableness among neigh- 
bors. Not only ought members of the same 
church to know one another, but people living 
in the same neighborhood owe one another 
friendly offices, and ought to meet now and 
then, for purely social purposes. Our churches 
claim much of our time and sometimes exhaust 
our good fellowship, but it seems to me that 
our fraternal intercourse should overflow the lim- 
its of church relationship, that we may not seem 
to be sectarian and exclusive in our religious 
life. In every community, whether it be city or 
village or farming district, much may be done 
by the exercise of a kindly hospitality and by 
the cultivation of a social spirit to make life 
pass pleasantly and to lighten the burden of 
daily care. If our social assemblies could al- 
ways be without parade or formality ; if they 



112 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

were less devoted to the exhibition of finery and 
more to the cultivation of friendliness ; if they 
were not so vulgarly expensive in the ordering 
as they sometimes are, but were more homelike 
and unpretentious in their style, they might be 
very useful. And the Christian in society will, 
if he is an intelligent Christian, use all his influ- 
ence to restore to the social life of the commu- 
nity where he lives these simpler manners. 

In these gatherings for social purposes and 
in other places diversions of one sort or another 
will be provided, and it is the duty of the Chris- 
tian to assist in providing these, and by partici- 
pating in them to preserve them from the abuses 
that often infest them. Recreations and amuse- 
ments are not only not necessarily sinful, they 
are indispensable adjuncts of social life. Young 
people need them and so do old people ; the 
rich want them, and not less do the poor. The 
business man, loaded with cares and goaded by 
anxieties, requires occasional relaxation ; the 
laboring man, whose toil is monotonous, and 
whose life is desolate, wants some pleasant pas- 
time now and then in which he can forget him- 
self. Rest is not enough ; the mind needs 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. 113 

diversion. There is excellent tonic in " a good 
time " for the jaded and anxious worker. " A 
merry heart doeth good like a medicine. ,, Ex- 
perience teaches that people will have amuse- 
ments. They cannot do without them. And 
it is therefore the duty of the Christian in^society 
to take hold of this department of life and 
Christianize it. The thing can be done — there 
is no doubt about it, — and it must be done. It is 
quite vain for Christians to stand aloof from all 
the diversions of society, complaining of the 
evils connected with them ; they must enter 
heartily into them, and guard them against the 
evils. What is more, they must learn to use a 
little common sense in their treatment of all 
these questions of amusement, and when a pas- 
time, in itself innocent, is badly abused, they 
must direct their censure not at the pastime 
but at the abuse. It is sometimes a great service 
to reclaim a diversion that has fallen into the 
hands of the devil, and to show how it may be 
harmlessly and helpfully used. That makes the 
good apparent and the evil also manifest, and 
establishes a principle which it is always safe to 
follow. 



114 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

It is always important that the Christian who 
enters into society, into the social assemblies 
and the diversions of the day, go always as a 
Christian; that he be not subservient to the cus- 
toms and conventions of society, many of which 
are foolish and some of which are sinful. He 
is to govern his conduct not always by the 
usages of society but always by the law of 
Christ. When the two come into conflict he can 
never hesitate for a moment as to which he 
shall obey. And the man who thus in utter fidel- 
ity to the higher law goes out into society and 
lets his light shine will be as a city set on a hill 
that cannot be hid. 

Some of these interests that I have men- 
tioned, as esthetic culture, sociableness, diversion, 
can only be cared for by voluntary effort. But 
those more important ones which I mentioned 
first, health, morality, and education, are largely 
entrusted to the care of the laws. Much can be 
done to promote these interests by private effort 
and voluntary association ; but as our society is 
at present organized, the government of the 
town or the city takes upon its shoulders the 
greater part of the burden. But what is as- 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. 115 

sumed by the government is not withdrawn from 
the sphere of Christian activity, because the 
Christian is a citizen, and it is part of his Chris- 
tian duty to see to it that the government is 
wisely chosen, and that it faithfully performs its 
duties. One of the first and most urgent of the 
duties of the Christian in society is to see that 
good laws are made and good magistrates 
elected. There is no better opportunity of doing 
good than that which presents itself where re- 
sponsible offices are to be filled. The welfare oi 
the community depends in no small degree upon 
the men to whom its affairs are entrusted. And 
the best men do not gravitate into office ; they 
must be put in by main strength and kept in by 
resolute endeavor. The price of liberty and 
good government is not only eternal vigilance 
but eternal courage and eternal sacrifice. The 
Christian citizen must never think the victory 
over bad government won ; like the battle with 
sin in his own heart the conflict must be renewed 
boldly every day. 

The Christian in society is, as I said at the 
beginning, a member of that larger society 
which we call the state or the nation ; and all 



Jl6 THE CHRISTIAN WAV. 

that has been said about the duty of securing 
good laws and good magistrates for the town or 
the city applies with still greater force to those 
higher and more responsible relations into which 
our citizenship in the commonwealth and the 
republic introduces us. The political duties of 
a Christian are among the most important du- 
ties that he is called to perform. If in any part 
of his service he needs the wisdom of the Most 
High to guide him, he needs it when he deter- 
mines upon his political^ action. There is great 
danger that his decision will be influenced by 
unworthy motives. In every political campaign 
a great many lies are told. He ought to be in- 
telligent enough to detect and reject the false- 
hood. In every great national contest the 
basest passions are continually appealed to, and 
the most unfair and outrageous misrepresenta- 
tions of opponents are all the while indulged in. 
He ought to be upright and honorable enough, 
not only to resist this onset of hate and spite, 
but to denounce and repudiate everything that is 
unfair and dishonorable. In every heated polit- 
ical arena the Christian ought to try to keep a 
cool judgment and an even temper. I do not 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. II7 

say that he should never feel or manifest indig- 
nation, for things will be done which, as an 
honorable man, he ought to resent, and men will 
appear as candidates for public favor that ought 
to have the truth told about them, even if it 
takes very hard and strong words to tell the 
whole truth. But a proper indignation at 
wrongs done or attempted and a proper abhor- 
rence of rascals in office or seeking office, are 
quite compatible with the utmost fairness to 
opponents, and the most judicial temper in 
studying the issues of the campaign. It is gen- 
erally safe to conclude that the good men are 
not all in one party nor the bad men all in the 
other ; it is always best to hope that there may 
be some patriotism and some intelligence among 
our political opponents. The Christian man 
ought to remember that Christ's word about 
judging and being judged, and his rule about 
doing to others as we would that others should 
do unto us, hold good even in a presidential 
year; and that the charity that thinketh no 
evil, and that rejoiceth not in iniquity, is be- 
coming even in our treatment of political op- 
ponents. 



I I 8 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

With this spirit of moderation and this de- 
termination to know the truth, and to put 
country always above party, the Christian 
should enter into politics. I can think of few 
spheres of activity in which there is more need 
of him. They tell us that the olden times were 
worse than these ; that there was not only more 
of corruption and chicane in politics during the 
first two decades of our national life than there 
is to-day, but that partisanship was more bitter 
then than it is now. I suppose that this is true, 
nevertheless it is difficult to conceive how any- 
thing could be much viler than the torrent of 
political agitation that is poured through the 
land now, every four years. To say that our 
presidential campaigns as at present conducted 
are a valuable means of educating the people is 
to my mind a pitiful absurdity. Educating 
them in what ? In falsehood and hate, if in 
anything. Fair, intelligent, discriminating dis- 
cussion of the issues before them they do not 
get. Each party presents every fact and every 
consideration that makes for itself and against 
its opponent, and energetically suppresses every 
fact and every consideration that makes against 



THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY. II9 

itself and for its opponent. The candid and 
impartial voter can only weigh two partial and 
contradictory statements, and seek to strike the 
balance between them ; but how many are there 
who hear both sides, and weigh both sides ? 
Not one in a hundred. 

I cannot but feel that these quadrennial 
contests are a fruitful source of demoralization, 
rather than of profit. Not only because of the 
bribery that is so freely resorted to, not only 
because of the corrupt bargains that are so often 
made to secure nominations, but also and chiefly 
because of the poisoning of the mind of the 
people at large with false accusations and false 
theories and the embittering of their hearts with 
hateful passions. Men learn to take distorted 
and one-sided views of all political questions ; 
they learn to put the worst possible construction 
always upon the conduct of their opponents ; 
what is worse, they learn to stand by when out- 
rageous wrongs are done in the interest of the 
party to which they have attached themselves, 
and either keep silent or defend the wrong. 
The optimistic moralists are always inclined to 
make light of this when it is past. " See," they 



120 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

say, " how quickly these people that were but 
a little while ago so hot in their animosities 
get over their passion ! ,! Yes ; but the fact that 
a man is sober and quiet this morning does not 
cancel the fact that last night he was drunk and 
violent. And I do not think it good to be 
drunk, either with wine or with party passion, 
even though one may after a while become 
sober again. 

Into this fierce and brutal strife the Chris- 
tian ought to carry his Christianity ; standing 
always for honor and fair play ; for chivalry in 
the treatment of opponents ; for truth and the 
whole truth against the perversions and conceal- 
ments of partisans ; for all things honest and of 
good report no matter with what party they may 
be identified ; against all things base and vicious 
in his own party quite as stoutly as in the other. 
For such a mixing of religion with politics there 
is surely an urgent call. And when a little 
more of the spirit of Christ is infused into our 
political discussions, we shall find that our reli- 
gion as well as our politics will be the gainer ; 
that the one will be more vigorous and manly 
and the other more pure and honorable. 



VII. 

THE CHRISTIAN'S QUIET LIFE. 

Service and not sanctification is, as we 
have seen, the supreme object of the Christian's 
desire and endeavor. "To serve the present 
age/' this is his high calling. The attainment 
of a perfect character is not neglected by him, 
but that is an object to be sought indirectly. 

It may be said that character is the supreme 
thing ; that a perfect soul is better than any or 
all the acts that issue from it ; just as the mind 
of Shakespeare is greater than the sum of all his 
dramas. That is true. But Shakespeare's won- 
derful mind was not the result of constant labor 
expended, directly upon his mind. If his mind 
had been a constant care to him, he would have 
been a noodle. It was not by nursing his mind 
but by using his mind, that he became the par- 
agon of poets, and the prince of modern inter- 
preters of human life. The man who devotes 
6 



122 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

his whole life to the study of his mental pro- 
cesses, and the curing of his mental ailments, 
and the discovery of the laws of mental hygiene 
and the practice of mental gymnastics, will prob- 
ably develop a very pretty little model of a 
mind, but like the inventor's model engine, it is 
fitted to look at or to play with, not to use. It 
is the vigorous and productive use of the mind 
in the study of truth, in the business of life, that 
makes the intellectual man. 

Happiness like mental culture is missed by 
those who seek it directly. 

" O Happiness, our being's end and aim," 

cries out the unphilosophical Pope. But they 
who make happiness their being's end and aim, 
who say to themselves " Go to ! let us be hap- 
py," are always sure to make themselves miser- 
able. Happiness always flies from those that 
pursue it ; it is found only by those who forget 
to seek it, and devote their lives to some honest 
and beneficent labor. 

What is true of mental development and of 
happiness is true also of moral and spiritual per- 
fection. The highest religious culture is not 



THE CHRISTIAN S QUIET LIFE. 123 

attained by those who make religious culture 
the supreme object of their thought and their 
endeavors. Those Christians whose chief con- 
cern is their own spiritual condition, are a very 
poor sort of Christians. A self-conscious holi- 
ness is a contradiction in terms. It is through 
a self-forgetful service that the highest culture is 
gained ; through a faithful following of Him who 
came not to minister to himself, not to be min- 
istered unto, but to minister to others ; who be- 
came King of kings and Lord of lords by his 
utter self-surrender ; and whose highest praise 
is spoken in the scoffs of his murderers — " He 
saved others — himself he cannot save." 

Nevertheless there are passive virtues as well 
as active virtues; and there are, or ought to be, 
many hours in the Christian's life when he is 
not employed directly in doing good to others, 
and when he must think of himself— of his own 
spiritual condition, of the gains and losses of his 
daily commerce in the heavenly treasures of 
wisdom and grace and power. There is a time 
to meditate as well as a time to act ; and this 
ouiet life of the Christian, in which his spirit is 
refreshed and his strength for labor is replen- 



124 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

ished, is a most essential part of the regimen 
under which his character is developed. Per- 
haps many of us do not know so much as we 
ought about the peace of the still hour, the fruit- 
ful growths of the quiet life. I would not say 
that there is too much service and too little cul- 
ture. Too much genuine service there cannot 
be; but there may easily be too much parade 
of service ; too much bustle and noise of doing , 
too much public service as compared with those 
more private and unostentatious ministries in 
which some of the best traits of the Christian 
character are wholly developed. But while ser- 
vice is the principal thing, and while, if rightly 
divided and directed, there cannot be too much 
of it, there may easily be too little of medita- 
tion, too little dwelling apart in the secret 
silence of the mind. Our Lord himself went 
away more than once from those ministries of 
love in which his strength was consumed, and 
climbed the mountainside to spend the night in 
prayer. If he needed such seasons of repose 
and refreshment much more do we. 

" But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy 
closet, and when thou hast shut thy door pray 



THE CHRISTIAN'S QUIET LIFE. 125 

to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." 
These words from the Sermon on the Mount 
are not a prohibition of public prayer or social 
prayer ; they are only a reproof of those who per- 
formed their private devotions in public places ; 
who said their prayers on the corners of the 
streets to be seen of men. It is this ostentatious 
abuse which our Lord condemns in the verse 
before the one I have quoted. But these words 
are the most explicit authority for that quiet life 
of prayer and meditation of which we have been 
speaking. The closet hours are to be sacredly 
set apart and sacredly observed. It is not well 
to leave this most important business to impulse 
or caprice. The volitions that lead to it ought 
to be fenced in with the force of habit. That 
which is habitual is easy of performance ; and a 
good habit like this may come to rule the soul 
as firmly as those evil habits do that hold us in 
painful thrall. 

I have spoken already of the uses of reading 
in preparing us to speak well ; but reading is also 
a good help to those who would think well. 
There are many books that are not fit compan- 



126 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

ions for the closet h»;ur ; but there are a few with 
which we may well yit down in the secret place, 
because they will aid us in calling in our thoughts 
from the noisy world outside and in fixing them 
upon the things that are unseen and eternal. 
It sometimes requires a strong effort of the will 
to wrench one's attention loose from the cares 
and interests of this p resent life ; and if we begin 
the silent hour by simply trying to think good 
thoughts, the good thoughts may fail to come 
when we summon Uiem, and thoughts that are 
unbidden and unprofitable guests may throng in 
and fill the space that ought to be sacred to de- 
votion. But many \^ hose mental discipline has 
not been sufficient to enable them to think con- 
secutively and profitably in such a season, can 
yet fix their attention upon a book, and out of 
the truth which it contains may draw stimulus 
and refreshment. And though the book should 
not occupy all the true set apart for meditation, 
it may often serve js abridge over which the 
Christian may pass from the busy life to the 
quiet life. Such books as Professor Phelps* 
"The Still Hour," Miss Dora Greenwell's * The 
Patience of Hope," and " A Present Heaven ,: 



THE CHRISTIAN'S QUIET LIFE. \2J 

Dr. J. P. Thompson's " The Holy Comforter," 
Dr. W. W. Patton's " Spiritual Victory," Dr. E. 
H. Sears' " Sermons and Songs for the Christian 
Life," the Sermons of Dr. Bushnell or President 
Woolsey or President Hopkins or Frederick Rob- 
ertson or Robert Leighton or Jeremy Taylor ; 
the Life and Letters of Robertson, Pascal's 
" Thoughts," or Dean Goulburn's " Thoughts on 
Personal Religion," may lead the studious dis- 
ciple into that contemplative mood in which the 
great themes of the immortal life become reali- 
ties. Novels, even those of most religious intent, 
are to be eschewed in the hour of meditation ; 
what the soul needs is not excitement nor even 
exhilaration, but the clearing of its spiritual 
vision and the strengthening of its pinions for 
flights above the world of sense. 

But while such books as I have named may 
often serve us well in our quiet hours, there 
is but one book, after all, that is fit to be the 
inseparable companion of the closet, and that is 
the Bible. For instruction, for inspiration, for 
stimulus, no other words are to be compared 
with those which we find upon its sacred pages. 
Not all parts of the Bible are equally adapted to 



128 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

the uses of the closet ; the Psalms and the Book 
of Job, and the Prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment, with the whole of the New Testament, 
ire the portions from which we shall derive 
most benefit. The Bible in the closet is not to 
be used as a text-book of theology ; it is not by 
the microscopic method of interpretation that we 
get the most good from it ; we must beware how 
we place too much stress on a literal rendering 
of certain texts ; it is by a large and free use of 
the book that its truth is unfolded to us ; the 
letter killeth but the spirit giveth life. To put 
ourselves in the place of the sacred writer so far 
as we are able ; to feel the impulse that moves 
him to write — the lift and sweep of his inspira- 
tion ; to get into the current of the divine 
thought that is bearing him on ; to catch his 
spirit and see the life that now is and the life 
that is to come with his eyes — this is the right 
method for him who uses the Bible as an aid to 
secret meditation and devotion. At other times 
and for other purposes it may be well to study 
the Book critically, grammatically, narrowly, 
but that is not the way to use it in the closet. 
It is to our feelings rather than our critical fac- 



THE CHRISTIAN S QUIET LIFE. 1 29 

ulties that it ought to address itself there ; the 
awakening of our desires for better life, the 
kindling of our hopes, the quickening of our 
consciences, the enlarging of our faith is the 
service we then demand of it. And this is 
obtained, not when we set ourselves up as in- 
quisitors, and controversialists, to cross question 
the Bible, but when we drink in with reverent 
faith its holy inspirations, when without setting 
forth in quest of somewhat upon its pages, we 
quietly wait and let the truth discover us. We 
do not always need to seek God in the Bible, 
for in the Bible God is seeking us, and he will 
surely find us, if we are ready to be found of 
him. 

To read, and think ; to think while we are 
reading ; to pause in our reading for more care- 
ful thought ; to " mark, ponder, and inwardly 
digest " the word of truth as it is brought to us 
whether upon the inspired or uninspired page, — 
this is a means of grace that we cannot afford to 
neglect. Not all our thinking however, will be 
the product of our reading. Life as well as 
literature will furnish us with profitable themes ; 
the events that happen within our knowledge, 
6* 



130 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

the passages in our daily experience will be fruit- 
ful of thought. If we are faithfully endeavoring 
to apply our religion to our lives, difficult ques- 
tions will be arising continually, of which we 
shall need to think ; questions of conduct, ques- 
tions of service. Off hand decisions of problems 
of duty are often unwise ; a fuller investigation 
of the subject in all its bearings would have 
resulted in a different judgment. For such 
careful examination of the doubtful cases aris- 
ing in our every day practice time is wanted — 
and the hour of quiet study is the right time. 

There is need also of some thorough probing 
of the inner life ; some strict and stern self-judg- 
ment. All that I have said about the unwisdom 
of making one's own spiritual condition the up- 
permost concern is true. The religious life 
whose energies are consumed in self-question- 
ing, whose one great concern is expressed in the 
hymn: 

" Do I love the Lord or no ? 
Am I his or am I not?" 

is always an unfruitful life. Yet there is a time 
for careful self-examination, for thorough in- 
spection of the foundations of character. Old 



THE CHRISTIAN S QUIET LIFE. 131 

George Herbert's quaint counsel is to be duly 
heeded : 

" By all means use sometimes to be alone ; 

Salute thyself ; see what thy soul doth wear ; 
Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thine own, 

And tumble up and down what thou find'st there." 

The comparison of oux conduct with our 
ideals ; the measurement of our daily practice by 
the perfect standard of Christ's law ; the fair 
estimate of our attainments in the light of our 
opportunities — these are useful exercises. They 
are not to be too frequently resorted to ; the 
staple of Christian devotion is not self-examina- 
tion ; but in due measure they are profitable. 
Ask yourself about the temper, whether that is 
growing less fractious and less sullen ; about the 
will, whether that is growing firmer and steadier 
in its adherence to right principles and good 
purposes, and more pliable and gentle when 
honest opinions collide, and opposing interests 
are to be harmonized ; about the thoughts, 
whether they are becoming purer, and holier; 
whether the flocks of evil fancies that were once 
continually darkening the mind, now return less 
frequently, and are more quickly driven away ; 



132 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 



about the disposition, whether that is growing 
more generous and loving ; whether it is easier 
than once it was to practice self-denial in the 
small affairs of every day, as well as in the 
great sacrifices that now and then must be 
made ; whether the foolish vanity that puts the 
externals of life above its realities, and the fool- 
ish pride that leads you to despise those less for- 
tunate than you, and the mean envy and jeal- 
ousy that sometimes disfigure your characters, 
and the petty ambitions that often domineer 
your better natures — whether all these degrad- 
ing passions are being subdued ; ask yourself 
about the tongue, whether that is getting tamer, 
slower to censure, swifter to bless; about the 
appetites, whether they are learning to submit 
to the sway of the nobler affections and the rea- 
son ; you will find questions enough doubtless 
to ask yourself, and if you urge them with thor- 
oughness and answer them with honesty, the 
inquisition may be fruitful of good. 

Such a candid survey of one's own character 
is pretty certain to discover weak points, easily 
besetting sins. There are faults of tempera- 
ment, or faults of training, or faults of habit to 



THE CHRISTIAN'S QUIET LIFE. 1 33 

which we are all addicted, and which such an 
inspection will make us conscious of. And the 
result ought to be the direction of our efforts at 
self-discipline toward these weak points. " Es- 
pecially," says the apostle, (for this is the right 
reading) " especially " let us guard against " the 
sin which doth so easily beset us." The weak- 
est point in the defenses is the point that the 
enemy will assail and it is there that the strong- 
est force must be massed. 

But study and reflection and self-examination 
are not the only occupations of the still hour. 
It is also, and more especially, the time for 
prayer. It is well to commune with wise men 
who have left for us in the books that they have 
written the record of their own experience ; it is 
well to commune with those holy men of old who 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 
and whose words, written for our learning, are 
profitable for doctrine, reproof and instruction in 
righteousness ; it is well to commune with our 
own hearts in silence as we measure the poor 
achievements of our lives with the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus ; but to commune with 
God himself, to speak distinctly to him and 



134 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

know that he hears us ; to open all our hearts 
to him in thanksgiving, in confession, in entreaty, 
in intercession, and be assured that he is more 
responsive, more sympathetic, more compassion- 
ate than the tenderest father, the most loving 
mother into whose ear the erring but trusting 
child pours the story of his penitence and his 
purpose of better living, — this is at once the 
highest privilege, the greatest honor, and the 
noblest occupation permitted to mortal men. 
Public prayer, social prayer, and family prayer 
are all useful and even indispensable means of 
grace; but the prayer that most enriches the 
believer, that brings him into the closest fel- 
lowship with his Lord and Master, is that which 
is lifted up in the secret place. It is when none 
but God is near, that the heart most freely 
utters its need, and most strongly urges its 
petitions. In your closet you can pray for 
many things that you have no right to speak of 
in the prayer-meeting, or even at the family 
altar. The deepest needs of the human soul 
are often those which none but God can know ; 
the deepest sorrows are those which we can tell 
none but him ; the struggles that are most 



THE CHRISTIAN S QUIET LIFE. 1 35 

decisive in our spiritual warfare are those that 
are waged when we are left alone, as Jacob was, 
and wrestle with the Angel of the covenant some- 
times even unto the breaking of the day. The 
Christian who lives without secret prayer, or 
who prays in secret perfunctorily and drily — 
just saying his prayers and letting that suffice, — 
is neither a growing Christian nor a working 
Christian. I doubt whether he is a Christian 
at all. 

Let me offer a word or two of counsel con- 
cerning the manner in which this duty of private 
devotion may best be performed. 

1. Be simple and direct in your secret 
prayer. The grace of simplicity is not to be 
despised in public prayer ; but when we call on 
God in secret, any formality or elaborateness in 
our petitions is an offense. 

2. Pray audibly. You need not lift your 
voice to be heard in the street, but it is vastly 
better to pray not merely in our thoughts but 
also with words. The utterance of our wants 
helps to define them. Wishes that merely drift 
through the mind and never find articulate ex- 
pression are not apt to be influential in their 



136 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

effect upon our characters. And prayers on 
which we are not willing to put the emphasis of 
utterance are not likely to be effectual prayers. 
I do not deny that a silent wish, a sincere 
desire of the soul, unexpressed as well as 
uttered, may be recognized as genuine prayer 
and may be answered ; but I say that when one 
enters into his closet to pray to his Father in 
secret, it is far better that he should put his 
petition into plain words. " Beware," says Dr. 
James W. Alexander, " of confining yourself to 
mental prayer, but in your regular devotions 
employ audible utterance ; for great is the reflex 
influence of the voice upon the feelings." 

3. Be honest in your secret- prayer. Do not 
express any want that you do not feel. Do not 
confess any fault that you do not mean to for- 
sake. Do not keep anything back. Remember 
that it is He that searcheth the heart to whom 
you are speaking. Do we not sometimes while 
conscious of a fault or a sin ignore it in our de- 
votions, praying all round it, but never men- 
tioning it ? We know that we are in the wrong, 
but we do not mean to forsake the wrong ; 
therefore we choose to pass the matter by in 



THE CHRISTIAN S QUIET LIFE. 1 37 

silence. Such prayers as these must be arid 
and profitless for they are an abomination to the 
Lord. If there is a secret fault to which we 
deliberately cling we cannot expect the favor of 
him who demands of every worshipper the 
whole heart. 

4. Pray earnestly. The words need not be 
loud, but the desire should be intense. " The 
fervent, energetic prayer of a righteous man 
availeth much." " The Kingdom of heaven 
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by 
force. ,, No listless, drowsy petitioning will 
serve. The closet is a quiet place, but there are 
strenuous and mighty forces that do their work 
in silence. 

5. Do not mock God in your prayers. Do 
not beg him to come to you. You know that he 
is never far from any soul that seeks him. That 
prayer is answered before you utter it. Do not 
ask God to do for you that which he has ex- 
pressly bidden you to do. How grossly in such 
prayers as these we abuse his infinite patience. 
Ask him always to help you ; in every strife, in 
every service, in every simplest act of devotion 
or obedience you need his help : but do not 



138 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

beseech him to do your duties for you and to 
give you without labor those gifts which he has 
expressly declared shall not be enjoyed except 
as the fruit of labor. 

6. Pray always with special reference to the 
needs of the day and the hour ; — the warfare 
to be waged, the temptations to be resisted, the 
work to be done, the sorrow to be borne ; put 
your life into your prayer; and let it be the 
most real and the most immediate business of 
your life. 

No doubt these seasons of secret devotion 
will sometimes be seasons of conflict. It was 
when our Lord was alone in the wilderness that 
Satan tempted him ; and every one who seeks 
the still hour will be sure to encounter the same 
adversary. Times of reflection are often times 
of doubt. While we are pondering the great 
themes of eternity the unexplained and inex- 
plicable mysteries of the life that is to come 
will sometimes settle like a thick mist upon our 
minds and envelop us in bewildering uncertain- 
ties. Oftener still our own lapses into sin, our 
failures to keep the vows we have spoken, or to 
conquer the evils we have tried to overcome 



THE CHRISTIAN S QUIET LIFE. 1 39 

fill us with discouragement, and make us doubt 
whether there be indeed any truth in this Gos- 
pel we profess. For the solution of these 
doubts there are a few simple rules. 

1. " Hold fast that which thou hast." In 
the midst of this uncertainty, some things will 
be certain. Adhere to these. You are per- 
plexed about many duties but there are duties 
about which you have no misgivings. Set right 
about them with a resolute purpose and a thor- 
ough diligence. 

2. Resolve that just as fast as truth is given 
you, you will accept it and live by it. 

3. Remember that religious truth can never 
be ascertained by mere speculation. It is largely 
truth of experience and can only find entrance 
to the mind through the life. It is heat as well 
as light, and you must suffer it to warm the 
heart as well as to illuminate the intellect. 
That is to say, you must study it with your 
affections as well as with your reason. Take 
therefore the character of Christ as delineated in 
the Gospels, and the character of God as Christ 
has unfolded it in his teachings, and reverently 
study them, asking yourself all the while what 



I4-0 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

relation you sustain to these persons ; and 
whether there is in your heart and life any room 
for such a friendship as that which Christ offers, 
any need of such a salvation as he has provided, 
any witness to the truth of which his life is the 
revelation. I think that when you come to 
study carefully first your own moral condition, 
and then the person and work of Jesus Christ, 
you will find a marvelous correlation between 
them, and that you will be convinced that he is 
indeed the very Friend you need. If you will 
then commit yourself to him as your Saviour 
and your Guide, you will soon find the way out 
of your bewilderment. 

This topic is too large to be treated here 
with any fullness ; let me commend to all whose 
lives are sometimes overcast by the haze of un- 
belief, a noble sermon of Dr. Bushnell's, printed 
in his last volume, and entitled " The Dissolv- 
ing of Doubts/' 

I have spoken now of the Christian's quiet 
hour in the closet, the hour that is sacred to 
study and thought and prayer, the hour which 
he sets apart for silent communings with things 
unseen and with Him whose presence fills all 



THE CHRISTIAN'S QUIET LIFE. 141 

secret places. But the Christian lives a quiet 
life outside the closet. His communion with 
high truth, and with the Invisible God is not 
all enjoyed in secret places. In the clatter of 
the shop, in the din of the street, in the hum 
of busy voices he is often alone with God. 

u Still with thee, O my God, 
I would desire to be, 
By day, by night, at home, abroad, 
I would be still with thee. 

" With thee when dawn comes in 
And calls me back to care ; 
Each day returning to begin 
With thee, my God, in prayer. 

11 With Thee amid the crowd 
That throngs the busy mart ; 
To hear thy voice, 'mid clamor loud, 
Speak softly to my heart." 

It is this consciousness of a presence always 
near, in the noise as well as in the silence, of a 
help that never fails in danger and extremity, 
that makes the Christian's life so blessed. The 
comfort of this assurance is very sweet. So 
long as he keeps it he is safe from temptation 
and strong for duty. The Friend that walks 
unseen beside Him is mighty to deliver. His 



142 THE CHRISTIAN WAY. 

thought, reaching out in the pauses of his toil, 
in the emergencies of his experience, always 
rests on the Almighty Helper. Quick as the 
volition can spring from the brain to the eyelid, 
the desire can fly to Immanuel and come back 
satisfied. " Let your thoughts," says Dr. Alex- 
ander, " during the employments of the day 
often go up in ejaculatory prayer, which is so 
called because such aspirations are like arrows 
shot up toward heaven ; and blessed is he that 
hath his quiver full of them. ' 



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